With “Seeing Eye Dog” Helmet is back with their third album since the 2004 reformation. Ever since then Page Hamilton has been the only constant member and driving force with a revolving cast backing him up. The line-up seemed stabile since the release of “Monochrome”, but during the recording of the new album bassist Jon Fuller was replaced in the studio by Chris Traynor. The new permanent bassist who will get to take “Seeing Eye Dog” on the road is a guy called Dave Case.
On to the music then… the album opens with some vintage Helmet sounds. Both “So Long” and the title track come with nasty, sludgy riffs and Hamilton’s typical bark. Drummer Kyle still beats the living shit out of his drums like the damn thing owns him money and guitarist Dan does a nice job of pairing up with Hamilton, tearing into the meaty riffs like a rabid dog.
Next up are a couple of more mellow tracks with “Welcome To Algiers” (one of the album’s highlights) and “LA Water”, the latter of which takes off from a dark place only to have poppy elements added later on in the song. Kind of like putting a cozy cushion with a nice floral print in an electric chair. It’s not like you’ll hear Helmet do anything you haven’t heard before but the real surprises are found as you work your way further down the tracklisting.
A song like “Morphing” is more like an instrumental interlude and it shows Hamilton incorporating his work on movie soundtracks in his other body of work. And then there’s the Beatles cover “And Your Bird Can Sing” which is another great way to incorporate more melody into the album without completely changing up the sound Helmet became known for with monster albums like “Betty” and “Meantime”. Other songs like “Miserable” are pretty fucking awesome as well and the monster drone of closer “She’s Lost” rounds out another perfectly fine Helmet album.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Work Song
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