Meantime

Meantime is the second studio album and major label debut by American 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 Recording Industry Association of America. The album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. The lead single from Meantime, "Unsung", was a charting success on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, and remains Helmet's best-known song. Music videos were also made for "Unsung", "Give It" and "In the Meantime". Background After the release of their nine-song debut album Strap It On, the band found themselves at the center of a major label bidding war, eventually signing to Interscope for a reported budget of US$1 million. In the wake of the grunge band Nirvana's recent success, many touted Helmet as the next big thing. Regarding the band's label as "the next Nirvana", frontman Page Hamilton said "They were interested in us before Nirvana even broke. And that's good, because we're obviously not it. I actually had an A&R guy at one label tell us that we were the next U2. At a certain point it just becomes ludicrous." The Guardian reflected in 2004 that Helmet played a "heavier, more metallic" style of music than grunge bands coming out of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1990s. Darren Cahr of the Chicago Reader wrote in 1992, "this is a band that, despite lacking the basic pop appeal that brought Nirvana such a huge audience, crosses all borders." Cahr pointed out that their music was getting played on both Headbangers Ball (a metal program) and 120 Minutes (an alternative program).