Scriviere una recensione su un disco del 1994 che non ha più tanto valore nel rock attuale messo a confronto con band di ben più grande valore è anacronistico, ma gli Helmet erano famosi non solo per aver dato alla luce una fusion tra metal e grunge con dei riff stratosferici e molto ripetitivi, ma anche per aver ispirato band come Tool Deftones e Korn.
Rispetto ai primi 2, "Strap It On" e "Meantime", dove la violenza sonora era a farsela padrona, in "Betty" hanno preferito esporre canzoni più varie stilisticamente con vari cambi di tempo e di riff. Le prime tre si ascoltano che è un piacere; "Wilma's Rainbow" "I Know" e "Buiscuits for Smut" sono delle vere metal in your face song specialmente la seconda dove la deviazione sonica si accentua con un intro in cui il tempo aumenta di grado scalando le strofe sonoricamente tostissime e ritornelli da cantare a squarciagola.
La quarta "Milquetoast" è la migliore di tutto l'album con l'ultimo minuto e mezzo strumentale, usata anche per il film 'Il Corvo'. Da qui bisogna aspettare la settima per ascoltare un altra canzone degna di nota, "Street Crab" riffoni stile industrial post-grunge ed è, insieme ad "I Know" quella che più rispecchia le origini della band che risalgono al 1991 ma nel 1998 pubblicheranno un album di demo risalente al "1988" infatti se lo si ascolta non si può che pensare all'innovazione per quegli anni.
La grande "Vaccination" è quello che intendo per deviazione sonora; un grande intreccio di chitarre, poche parole, cambi di ritmo continui, che portano alla traccia strumentale prima di "Speechless" che, seguita da un altra strumentale, precede "Overrated" l'ultima traccia che termina con un assolo grandioso. Il lavoro di John Steiner batterista che ha continuato a suonare con i Tomahawk di Mike Patton, ex Faith No More, è superlativo imprime uno stile in ogni canzone passando da continue sfaccettature a tempi definiti che accompagnano le tracks.
Da fan degli Helmet li adoro perchè mi hanno sempre trasmesso una grande sincerità nel loro modo di fare musica, seguita da un sound contorto e rumoroso di un impatto devastante. Unici perchè sono la classica band in cui tutti vorrebbero suonare.
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01 Wilma's Rainbow (03:55)
You heard about, "be your own man"
You talk a lot and loud
Illustrate the obvious boy
You're mentally endowed
Watershed year comes
You're flush with fever
The richest junk dealer
Honestly, a book you read once
Let you think in rhyme.
The old extreme
Sits pale and molds
Now for the millionth time
Wilma's rainbow of peaceful colors
The richest junk dealer
02 I Know (03:41)
Wafer thin
The waif is in
She's chlorine clean and portion fed
Feed the dog
Slop the hog
Shine the Baptist and debark the log
It's all right, I know
You're the only one who can
Show us at all
Get it done
Circulate
What I hear, fear motivates
So intense
So sensitive
In your head where fashion lives
It's all right, I know
You're the only one who can
Show us at all
It's ok, I know
You're mean and hard and bored
It's always something
03 Biscuits for Smut (02:53)
Served up in the backyard
Cooked too long on high
Flying out the window
Even dogs have passed them by
Didn't know she was tied up
Better fed than forced
Time to meet the protagonist, boy
He never showed remorse
Choking on the one thing
His tongue had gotten too fat
A barely walking dead man
Seemed to know where he was at
Drive himself to the airport
Getting out of here
Overworking the small town
The law couldn't get too near
04 Milquetoast (03:54)
Tell me if you think it's all right
I'll give in to what you know
I don't see the habits that
Become me
I've saved up my useless thoughts
Well means, it works I'm on your side
I said that? Well so, I lied
Remeber I tried not to be wary
This failed me once too much
Unrecognized
Well preserved
Don't forget what you heard
05 Tic (03:40)
The tic begins where's the manner end?
The climate change will never get in
Silent and strong and prepossessed
You never need to make you own mess
Weasel to me is charming to some
Loathsome and glib
Habits like self-love
Wearing slim fast you carve your niche
Lean smug back and work your pitch
And all the way I'm gone, no
Demon race to find
You paint if up and know that
Any face can lie
Affect my greatest style, what
Suits me best of all
Keep my pocket filled, lean right and
Fall
06 Rollo (02:38)
Sorry for myself, I've lost my
Kharmic wealth but
I can take from you with antiseptic stealth
I'll dig my own grave, get my
Front yard paved
There's always a penny earned
Another dollar saved
What lies ahead
I always make my point, soak
Bread in dirty oil
"Right's" too strong a word
The neighborhood's been spoiled but
I know what I know, stuck that
Inner glow
I don't have time to learn
I said I know what I know
I'm wrong, I won't admit it
I won't get it
08 Clean (02:26)
Spread you mind the fish feed
Don't ignore my speech my
Heart blees
Make yourself the perfect butt
Some passing thought, I don't know what
Don't remind me, I'll fake
What I need to...
Get back in case the door swings and
Don't forget to hide
Your mood rings
Fit to tie
I thought I knew good company
I'd like to be you
You're right behind me and
Mouth all I read...
Don't remind me, I'll fake
What I need...
You're right behind me and
Mouth all I read...
09 Vaccination (03:04)
Petty news, it's only your bad ear
It might be worth it
To watch what you hear
Feeling great now you expand your view
You can't forget, somebody hates you
Justify my worst behavior
Search in blood-lines
Exchange a favor
Humble goals
Bad nutrition
Rely on me
There's one condition
Humble goals
Bad nutrition
Rely on me
There's one condition
Imitated
So adored
The wind picks up
My suit gets torn
11 Speechless (02:59)
Indecisive and deaf or dumb
Tongue-dried in the sun
Nervous speech and your mental health
Drunk on every detail
Loosened up from the moral slide as though
There's nothing to hide
It corresponds with your secret view and
Never weighs upon you
I'd blame someone but I've got you
Like everyday that bores me
Sleep fine at night and
Wake up to my early speechless morning
It works like crime, adjust your view
Waste your time improving
She's cut so well and lifelike too
You'll bleed to death before me
13 Overrated (02:40)
Today's another day
You won't deny that
It came so slow you don't remember
When you got so fat
Up above the bathroom mirror
The light'll make you weak but
It's that pacifying lie that grows
Now every week
And still you hate it, it's overrated
I'll never forget things like,
"Who did what?"
Cover old ground and drag
What's useless up
I won't feel guilty about being late again
There's no one to answer to and
No one to hate...
14 Sam Hell (02:11)
Sam invents the you you want to see
Don't believe in predestiny
Bacon you never need bring home
Sam Hell gets you redeemed
By grace alone
Sam's the mayor of First Avenue
Nothing goes on he doesn't want to
A wife that wears his 'in' stocking hat
She's known for making good
Gravy and cat
Heart attack
Time to eat and pay
Cellulite won't wash away
You never knew if you'd been dead or
Just old
Sam Hell never gets that cold
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