TS: Helmet "Meantime" vs. Rollins Band "End of Silence" (and other brainy post-hardcore '90s acts)

Goofing on the preposterousness of a Meatloaf-style Filter comeback album ("2 Short 2 Bus" anyone) led to a pondering of the distinctly '90s strain of bookish hard rock.

To wit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgGyX7WPxuQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o28dyt7w3As

i really liked both records when they came out, but i'm thinking that after years of being away from both, the helmet would sound a lot less silly to my ears now.

but the last time i heard rollins' "liar" (when i was putting together a grannykart track that sampled it), the band sounded fucking tight.

"Get yourself a break from self-rejection/try some INTROSPECTION!"

Never stopped listening to Meantime. Prolly one of the most timeless/least dated rock records of the 90s, full stop

meantime is awesome, sleek, devastating, machine-like. end of silence is fucking intense. i loved the latter most as an intense teen, but when i listen to it now it feels overlong in place. 'just like you' will flatten you, however.

meantime has the most awesome snare sound, as well, which stanier explored further on betty (especially on 'i know'). i asked him about it earlier this year, and he said the group had almost finished meantime when the producer suggested they use the snare filter on the last track. the moment they heard how the snare sounded, they asked to go back and use the filter on the whole album. the climactic drum roll on 'you borrowed' is insanity.

oh man, totally forgot about this stuff. remember the local metal stations like KNAC playing this one a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXN-QC9h2E

for some reason I kind of associate Tool with this stuff too (never got into them though), kind of the beginning of that churning drop D style of riffage that ended up informing numetal

some reason I kind of associate Prong with this sound/era too, this post-metal, post-hardcore phase in the early 90s where a lot of the metal stations were starting to play grunge and all this hardcore-goes-metal stuff - including Danzig I guess (while metal was going more into this atonal groove direction - Pantera, Sepultura etc)

listened to end of silence en route to work - only got as far as 'what do you do', but fuckin hell, what an amazing bass sound they had. and how HEAVY does obscene get?

pretty sure i'll end up skipping 'blues jam', which is altogether too long but successfully evinces the crushing misery that rollins is aiming for. "believe me when i tell you / love will not break your heart / it'll crush it" is a pretty devastating line, and i've never been sure how straight-faced it is.

I need to pick up Meantime again. The only Helmet I have is the best-of; meanwhile, I have all the Rollins Band stuff in my iPod. I wish there was an instrumental version of Come In and Burn around; the band is so fucking tight on that album, exploring this weird jazz-prog-metal space that's right in between Helmet and King Crimson circa 1974. Rollins' one-note vocals become grating sometimes, though. Still, check out this fucking song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvsnkQtZLI&ob=av2e

I never even knew there was a video for this song; it's pretty weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DftCIarV03o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGPzJs1WK88

These guys probably fit here too, even got the hardcore roots.

Anybody who isn't Swedish remember the band Fireside? They totally scratched my Quicksand itch when it turned out I didn't like the second Quicksand album as much as the first one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJPoSaAoZ9w