Helmet is an American alternative metal band formed in New York City by Page Hamilton (vocals/guitar) with Henry Bogdan (bass), Peter Mengede (guitar) and John Stanier (drums) in 1989.
Helmet appeared in the New York underground scene in 1989 and quickly rose into the top ranks. They were spotted by Tom Hazelmeyer and signed to his Amphetamine Reptile Records label, releasing their debut 7 inch single, Born Annoying, later that year. AmRep released their first album, Strap It On, in 1990.
Helmet was acclaimed as a thinking person's heavy metal band. The members' appearance was a shock to many as they were all clean-cut—the antithesis of the heavy metal stereotype. Their music is characterized by repetitive, syncopated, staccato guitar riffs, often in odd time signatures, and almost always in a minor key with drop-D tuning. The guitar sound is heavily distorted and dissonant, with choruses that often involve guitar feedback waves. Page Hamilton has been hailed as one of the more innovative metal guitarists of the 1990s.
Before Hamilton had settled on a name for the group, Peter Mengede's wife suggested naming it after German Chancellor Helmut Kohl as an inside joke. The anglicized spelling stuck. Another name supposedly considered was "Cry Ruth".
The group rose to international stardom in 1992 after signing to Interscope Records. With the record industry hot to pick up burgeoning metal acts, Helmet was courted by a number of major labels. It is rumored that the members received in excess of $1 million at signing, along with an unprecedented amount of control over their work. Their first Interscope release, 1992's Meantime, was produced entirely by the band and was certified gold in the US by 1994. The album has sold over 1 million copies worldwide and remains Helmet's top-selling album. The group has been on the cutting edge of metal music, even helping pioneer " rap-metal" when they performed together with House of Pain for the soundtrack of the 1993 movie Judgment Night.
