Meantime is the second album and major-label debut by Helmet, released in 1992. The next step after noise architects such as Fugazi and Sonic Youth, Helmet's exultantly ferocious sound boasts the brontosaurian backbeat of metal and the vehemence of hardcore. And industrial ideas about song structure prevail – exhilarating textures and rhythms propel the music, melody having been dumped out of the band's speeding car and left for dead by the roadside. Despite the homicidal fury of Hamilton's vocals, his lyrics are enigmatic telegrams, refreshingly far from the sadistic threats one might expect. The ravaged textures of Meantime are almost tactile; at its best, as in "Ironhead" or "In the Meantime," its brute minimalism is reminiscent of a monumental steel sculpture. On occasion, the music tentatively gets tuneful – it's both a welcome aberration and a hint of what this deceptively cerebral band has yet to offer. The album cover features an image of a man in a white protective suit shoveling some substance on the ground. The album has been initially available with one of two reversely-colored covers; one has a blue background with a white-on-red Helmet logo, and the other has a red background with a white-on-blue Helmet logo (pictured above).
Tracklist:
1. In The Meantime
2. Iron Head
3. Give It
4. Unsung
5. Turned Out
6. He Feels Bad
7. Better
8. You Borrowed
9. FBLA II
10. Role Model
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