5 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Produced by: Matt Bayles (recorded, mixed by)

Sweet Damnbarino…  There’s some hesitation, sometimes, in going back and listening to a band’s releases from, chronologically, before the point you discovered them, and the further back in history you go, the greater that hesitation can become.  The fear is: At what point do you hear something that makes you ask: Would I have liked this band?  And then, for creatures of consistency like me, there’s the mental trepidation of trying to justify the early releases’ appeal.

No worries on that front with Helms Alee.

True enough, I had a Harkonen appreciation that would have given the group some initial credit, but these hardcore boys and girls have shown that their projects outside of their main (or initial) group can range in sound, so it’s not like an instant RIYL guarantee.  But no, no worries.

The two tracks on this single have the sort of straight-ahead driving force of Harkonen hanging over them, but the Helms spaceyness is still already apparent, especially on B-side Truely, with its undistorted guitar riff allowing the dual vocalists to spread out and drift over the drum pummeling in the song’s midsection.  A-side Truly is the instant sale, though, with Verellen’s characteristic gutsy riffing and running vocals trembling over those wonderfully omnipresent drums before (Dana or Hozoji, I dunno) kicks in with their vocals and proves that this is definitely not Harkonen.  Not just because of the female vocals, but due to how the song suddenly starts stacking on top of itself, noise upon noise, still tuneful, until the final section breaks madly loose with some wicked soloing above the fray.

Listened to via Hydra Head’s ‘secret seven inch’ series, which is this super cool concept of repressing of OOP stuff on recycled vinyl, and though the wax is thick as shit and looks hand-cut, fidelity is great, showing off the crystal-clear production and mixing from Bayles and Chris Common.