Helmet
Born Annoying 7″

THE REVIEW

I need to set things straight; in my recent page about the new Helmet record, I was far too caustic towards the band; and its leader Page Hamilton does not deserve such treatment. He is too important a figure for me; he has all my immense respect, seeing that he is one of the recognized godfathers of Hardcore-Noise. Let's start from the beginning then: in the mid-eighties, Page leaves his native Portland, on the west coast of the United States, and moves to New York to further his studies on jazz guitar (!!). Immediately, he gets involved with Glenn Branca and plays on the second record of the "Band Of Susans"; he is fascinated by the use of the distortion for his six strings. He enlists Bogdan, Stanier, and Mengede, and the Helmet creature is born. In December 1989, it's time for the first single; only two tracks. The over six minutes of "Born Annoying" and the short instrumental barrage of "Rumble." A compact and squared sound among obsessive and repeated rhythms; piercing guitars in perpetual distortion forming the base for Page's voice, full of tension; the leader shouts "...Born Annoying" and Helmet launch into the hallucinatory final two minutes of the song that contributed to damaging my auditory system (and not just that). Whenever listening to this colossal blow, I've always imagined an enormous blast furnace, while molten and incandescent steel is poured into the underlying crucible: millions of sparks propagate in a radius of a few dozen meters, and it's best to stay at a respectful distance due to the enormous wave of heat that has been created. This is the Helmet I have worshipped; this is the band that, with the following two long-distance works "Strap It On" and "Meantime," built their own legend.

Thought and written while listening to the eight minutes of the single...IRONHEAD...

Ad Maiora.