Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992                   TAG: 9203260032
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By JIM ROBERTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HELMET IS BIG ON VISCERAL IMPACT

Helmet's front man sees it differently.

"Part of the visceral impact is the volume," Page Hamilton said in a telephone interview from Nashville. "But I think it's at a comfortable level. I like to get harmonics and things to swirl around. There's a lot of air to move."

Hamilton, who has played with Glenn Braca and Band Of Susans, formed Helmet in New York City with fellow guitarist Peter Mengede, drummer John Stanier and bassist Henry Bogdan.

It all began, Hamilton said, on May 16, 1989 - the day Bogdan auditioned for the empty bassist slot.

"It was finally the right combination of people," he said.

Helmet signed with Amphetamine Reptile Records, recorded "Strap It On," toured the United States and Europe and ended by signing with a bigger label, Interscope Records. The band just finished recording "Meantime," which is to be released June 23.

Helmet's four-week "celebratory" tour will stop Tuesday night in Blacksburg, care of the Virginia Tech Union.

"It's hard rock," Hamilton said. "We're not a metal band or a hard-core band or a noise band."

Hamilton cites John Coltrane, Bela Bartok and Cole Porter as influences, but fans have compared Helmet's sound to Led Zeppelin, Killing Joke and The Ramones. One record executive - "with a limited exposure to music," Hamilton said - leans toward Living Colour.

"We don't really sound like any one band," he said. "That's a good thing."

Live, though, Helmet has an identity entirely its own.

"A lot of times, the crowd will stand there with their mouths open - they don't know what the hell it is," Hamilton said. "Other times, there's like bodies flying everywhere."

Hamilton equated fans seeing Helmet for the first time with their aunts and uncles seeing The Beatles 30 years ago.

"We're representative of that kind of energy," he said.

And the name? A friend came up with it over lunch one day. She had a Nick Cave fetish and a whimsical attraction to things German.

"She said, `You should call the band Helmut,' and we just laughed it off," Hamilton said. "Since Journey was already taken, we stuck with it."

Helmet will perform with Baby Igor and The Hood at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Old Dominion Ballroom of Squires Student Center. Tickets are $2 for Virginia Tech students and faculty, $3 for the public.