This was certainly one of the most anticipated rock records of 1994. Helmet had come out of nowhere with a multi-million dollar major label deal and had delivered some of the most punishing tracks yet heard on alternative radio. With this, their third record, they had a lot to live up to and ultimately, it left loads of people scratching their heads.<\/p>\n
Opening track \u201cWilma\u2019s Rainbow\u201d follows the lead of a track like \u201cUnsung\u201d \u2013 very dense, very heavy, but this one grooves more than its predecessor and is one of the most interesting tracks Helmet ever did. \u201cMilquetoast,\u201d which is probably the album\u2019s most famous track, having first appeared on the soundtrack to The Crow<\/i>, is also one of the greatest the band ever made. Just super heavy and aurally interesting, though it has been slightly remixed from its soundtrack origin.<\/p>\n
All throughout the record, the band entered in some new influences and audiences weren\u2019t prepared for some of it. \u201cTic\u201d and \u201cBiscuits For Smut\u201d shows a slowed down Helmet with some great bass work from Henry Bogdan on the latter. Bogdan and drummer John Stanier really shine on this disc, making up for Page Hamilton\u2019s almost lackadaisical vocals and are able to prove why they were one of the best rhythm sections of the \u201890s.<\/p>\n
Some songs like \u201cClean\u201d and \u201cStreet Crab\u201d just don\u2019t work and don\u2019t do a whole lot to really show off the musicianship within the band. This has always been viewed as Helmet\u2019s experimental record, and when they\u2019re covering Dizzy Gillespie on \u201cBeautiful Love\u201d and trying out some demented pseudo blues on \u201cSam Hell,\u201d that becomes very obvious.<\/p>\n
This record ended up confusing listeners and the band never really recovered. Guitarist Rob Echeverria, who hadn\u2019t been with the band long, ended up leaving about a year after the disc\u2019s release and by 1998, Helmet \u2013 or at least the Helmet that we knew and loved \u2013 was over. But at least they had carved their own path, and Betty<\/i> is the greatest possible example of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":32630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5737],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44396","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-helmet","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44396"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}