ALBUM RECOMMENDATIONS |

< Return to the review index

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Helmet

[#] Strap it On (1990)

Reviewed September 15, 2025

You ever seen a murder in a warehouse?

This is the record that Amphetamine Reptile says kept them afloat through the 90s. Is it any good? Fuck yeah it is. Right out of the gate, Helmet was something special. Like sonic serial killers, they're interested in brutality for more cerebral ends, and Strap it On is both satisfyingly primal and surprisingly dextrous all at once. A half hour does not give you a lot of time to prepare for the onslaught of angular time signatures, clanky drums, atonal guitar solos, and bellowed shouts that Strap it On drills deep into you like pistons. Whether you're looking for one of the best bad times in rock or you're just curious about how the "Unsung" guys started, do what the cover says and thank me later.

Not my favorite song here, "Repetition" nevertheless does a killer job of demonstrating the dextrous force of Helmet operating as a machine. The grooves are violently mechanical, angular, as John Stanier's drums bang on like the oil kind. The instrumentals sound quick and cheaply recorded, textured in grime by happenstance and not studio craft, but that's exactly what you want. "Rude", "Bad Mood", "Sinatra", "Blacktop"--these all demonstrate perfectly the lunging paranoia that defines this album, as Page Hamilton howls himself ragged over these ceaseless, neck-snapping start-stop charcoal black riffs. Again, though, it's not solely physical, there is activity above the brain stem. Tell me "Make Room" doesn't groove like an old jazz standard. Neat mixture.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"Rude", "Bad Mood", "Blacktop"	"Repetition"	"Distracted"

NOFI | LOFI | HIFI