Helmet - Size Matters

The resurrected Helmet pits a growlier Page Hamilton against a new rhythm section, but that's about the only change. Size Matters stutters just like the old days, and favors skewed melodies that, even if they're a little slower or more layered, still sound like New York City in 1990. "Crashing Foreign Cars," for example, could be part two of Strap It On's "Blacktop." There's Hamilton-branded guitar freakery here -- check the bleating car horn intro to "Enemies" -- and opener "Smart" is as economic as metal derivation is going to get in the new millennium, when the genre's dominated by bombast and ridiculously compressed electric guitars. Read More