Betty by Helmet

Betty, Helmet's third album, dropped on Interscope on June 21, 1994, with every eye in the room on it after Meantime, and it became the New York band's highest-charting record at home. Butch Vig produced, and Rob Echeverria, over from the hardcore crew Rest in Pieces, took Peter Mengede's place on guitar next to Page Hamilton, with Henry Bogdan on bass and John Stanier pounding the drums.

The riffs still land like girders dropped from a crane, stop-start and staccato, but Hamilton lets in odd angles and room to breathe. "Milquetoast", which had already turned up in a different form on The Crow soundtrack as "Milktoast", was the big one and a fixture on MTV, and "Wilma's Rainbow" and "Biscuits for Smut" got videos too. It never quite matched Meantime's acclaim, but in 2015 the band took it on the road and played it front to back.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.