Speaking of Helmet, the NYC band recently released their first album in six years. Dead To The World is Helmet's eighth studio album and features Page Hamilton with a new line up comprised of previous and new members, thus the same old story since the band's 2004 reincarnation.
Since there is more than a quarter of a century of music business on Hamilton's shoulders, not expecting much from a new Helmet album in the year 2016 wouldn't necessarily mean disrespect or disbelief in the band's abilities, but something more of a realist's expectation of what they should look for today from a veteran act that contributed in the shaping of a whole genre and generation of artists that much time ago.
Dead To The World is no Meantime nor Betty, but what it is, is an honest album, made intelligently so to be facing forward and not back into the band's prime years. It clocks at 36 minutes, which makes everything on the record be on point and leaves no time for the band to mess around or make any effort to recapture the alt-metal magic of the past. The unbiased and natural way in which things flow in Dead To The World certifies the album to be their best and most straightforward one of their second tenure.
AJC