Meantime

After the nine-song debut Strap It On, this New York band found itself at the centre of a bidding war. They signed to the newly founded Interscope for a reported one million dollars. Nirvana had just broken, and Helmet were sold as the next of that kind. Page Hamilton has pointed out that the label had been interested before Nirvana broke at all, and that the comparison was not theirs. Wharton Tiers recorded the album on a budget of $25,000, and the sessions lasted two weeks. The opening "In the Meantime" is the exception: Steve Albini recorded it and Andy Wallace later remixed it. Wallace's approach — triggered samples, a cleaner and more polished result — is where the record's distinctive snare sound, halfway between wood and metal, comes from. Albini was not pleased by the intervention. Sales on release were modest and the album stopped at number 68 on the Billboard 200. The lead single "Unsung" did well on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, though, and remains the band's best-known song. The record never stopped selling: the RIAA certified it gold in 1994 and it has passed two million copies worldwide. The running order here is the original's as printed.