Meantime is the second studio album and major label debut by alternative metal band Helmet. It was released on June 23, 1992 through Interscope Records. Despite initially only achieving moderate commercial success, peaking at number 68 on the Billboard 200 chart upon release in 1992, the album influenced multiple bands in its wake, and has been well received by music critics and is considered an influential album of the metal genre.
Meantime has continued to sell consistently well in the years since its release, and in 1994 was certified gold by the RIAA. The album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Helmet released one single from Meantime, Unsung, which was a charting success on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, and remains their best-known song. Music videos were also made for Unsung, Give It and In the Meantime. The album cover features an image of a man in a white protective suit shoveling some substance on the ground. It is taken from a photograph by David Plowden, “Puddler In Blast Furnace Cast House, Steel Mill, East Chicago, Indiana (1979).
The album is available with one of two reversely-colored covers; one has a blue background with a white-on-red Helmet logo, and the other has a red background with a white-on-blue Helmet logo (pictured above). Meantime was originally scheduled to be released in April 1992, being delayed until June of that year. The vinyl release of the album was handled by Amphetamine Reptile, who negotiated with Interscope to retain the vinyl rights to the band. It became Helmet‘s breakthrough album, and upon release peaked at number 68 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart, and at number one on the Top Heatseekers chart.
It also managed to chart outside of the USA in 1992, by peaking at number 88 on the Australian ARIA Charts. It is still considered their most commercially successful release and, to date, it is the only Helmet album to go gold in the United States. Their follow-up album Betty charted in Canada, New Zealand and several European countries, in addition to charting at a higher position in the United States and Australia. However, it has sold a lower number of copies overall when compared to Meantime.
Tracklist:
- In the Meantime
- Ironhead
- Give It
- Unsung
- Turned Out
- He Feels Bad
- Better
- You Borrowed
- FBLA II
- Role Model
Helmet
Page Hamilton: vocals, lead guitar
Peter Mengede: rhythm guitar
Henry Bogdan: bass
John Stanier: drums
Technical
Helmet: production
Steve Albini: engineering, (In the Meantime)
Wharton Tiers: engineering, all songs except (In the Meantime)
Andy Wallace: mixing
Steve Sisco: assistant mixing, engineering
Howie Weinberg: mastering
