"LEFT" sees Helmet - comprising frontman Page Hamilton, drummer Kyle Stevenson, guitarist Dan Beeman, and bassist Dave Case - carve out a musical landscape that is taut, muscular, and direct. Hamilton's lead guitar lines feel like everything from downed power lines arcing to exploding resistors in shortwave radios. On "LEFT" every snare crack hits like gunfire, every solo seemingly a manifestation of rabies-induced psychosis. Guided by Hamilton alongside co-producers Jim Kaufman and Mark Renk, and mastered by Howie Weinberg, the 11 songs on the new album are leaner and meaner in their execution than previous aural throwdowns. "LEFT" is powered by unbridled determination, a renewed sense of purpose and a desire to create more new dialects within the musical language Hamilton invented via his use of drop-D tuning.
