Helmet

Before forming Helmet in 1989, Page Hamilton had been active in the New York underground scene in the ’80s. Partly because of his jazz background and partly because he wasn’t afraid to explore the possibilities of the creative use of distortion with guitar, Hamilton worked with Glenn Branca before joining the underrated, experimental rock group Band of Susans. It wasn’t until Helmet’s second album, 1992’s Meantime, that Hamilton found himself in a band that enjoyed anything resembling mainstream success. Helmet’s combination of noise rock and eruptive energy made it a kind of crossover success in an era when few bands with a foot in what was clearly heavy metal were taken seriously. The new lineup of Helmet is less claustrophobic and dense, but the band’s overdriven melodies remain as vicious as ever.