Some bands were so invested with the pioneering spirit and were so far ahead of the curve that time is only just catching up, and that’s certainly the case with American metal band Helmet. With their monstrous riffs, unorthodox time signatures and seriously low drop tuning, they knocked down genre divisions and paved they way for the whole alternative metal revolution. Like most trailblazers they got usurped by those who followed and refined their sound for mass consumption yet, as their nine studio albums prove, from 1990’s seminal Strap It On to 2023’s majestic Left, Helmet got there first.

There’s no support band tonight to act as a preamble or mitigate our desire to see Helmet appear on the Dome’s elevated stage. It’s a decision that’s guaranteed to build tension, and the 90 minutes between door and stage times seem an eternity, it feels as if someone has stuck a weight on the minute hand, with each second becoming an aeon. To compound this situation the band are fashionably late, and when they appear it is in a typically understated manner; there’s no fancy introductions just the hammer-crushing-skull riff of ‘Swallow Everything’ to nail us to the floor. The collective known as Helmet appear as if from the ether, and like a bullet that’s fast approaching your forehead, is a bolt from the blue that shocks all from their revere.

Helmet are a band who use repetition as a battering ram to knock down the wall of your cranium; they’re an unexpected and unrepentant guest who aren’t going away until you let them in. Of course, the fact that they’re armed with some of metal’s biggest riffs doesn’t hurt and there’s something about Page Hamilton and Dan Beeman’s guitars that resonate with the crowd on a primordial level. This is the kind of music that simply demands you move, and in a raucous manner; I’ve survived many a mosh pit (Slayer ‘89 was particularly memorable), but that which breaks out tonight is exceptionally visceral and it radiates aggression like some strange brooding beast. Yet, it’s all in the right spirit and aside from the odd bruise, there’s no damage done.

Much of Helmet’s power comes from the precision with which their songs are performed. Like an invading army they march in lock step, and the chords they unleash are played with totalitarian authority; there’s no deviation from the norm here with each note slotting into place, a brick in a towering wall that threatens to topple and crush us at any moment. Dan Beeman and bassist Dave Case rock back and forth in perfect sync and look as if they might invade the crowd at any moment while drummer Kyle Stevenson delivers his beats with military muster. All this combines with Page’s robotic vocals to make songs such as ‘Renovation’ and ‘Repetition’ the most direct line to what the f*ck it’s all about.

You’d expect a sound played with an almost fascistic aesthetic to veer towards the generic, yet as is so often the case, the constraints the band place on themselves becomes a spur towards greater creativity, and subsequently Helmet deliver a career-spanning set that flows very well, and as the notes to final track ‘In The Meantime’ fade into the ether, there’s not a soul who leaves disappointed.

Set List:

1. Swallow Everything
2. Iron Head
3. Renovation
4. Holiday
5. Rollo
6. Big Shot
7. Birth Defect
8. Repetition
9. NYC Tough Guy
10. Milquetoast
11. Enemies
12. Blacktop
13. Driving Nowhere
14. Gun Fluf
15. Beautiful Love
16. Dislocated
17. Crisis King
18. Wilma’s Rainbow
19. Give It
20. Unsung
21. Sam Hell
22. Turned On
23. Just Another Victim
24. In The Meantime