Well, I'll be... I really can't remember the last time I read such a load of bollocks in picking up a label's info sheet about one of their bands!
If I sound a little annoyed there, I have every reason to, because here's how the Dutch distribution company “promotes” the band, Helms Alee: (translated from the info sheet that came along with the promo download of Helms Alee's full-length album, Sleepwalking Sailors): “Helms Alee is an oddity. One of those bands that have been germinating for years without ever seeing the light of day. Totally isolated from the outside world and unaware of the trends of the day. Uninfluenced by current day society and its sounds, the band makes music inspired by Metal, Art Rock, Pop, and Punk.”! They go on to simply state the line-up of the band, which consists of bassist Dana James, drummer Hozoji Matheson-Margullis, and guitarist Ben Verellen, all three of which also take on vocals.
Okay, so what's wrong with those statements? For starters, this is the band's third full-length, and on the side the band also has a series of EP's and splits to its name (following the self-titled EP released on Rome Plow in 2007, the band signed onto the Hydra Head roster, through which came the 2008 full-length Night Terror and 7-inch single Lionize/ truly, and 2011's sophomore full-length Weatherhead; then in 2013 came the independently released EP All About Friends Forever: Volume 4, and that same year also came splits with Ladder Devils – on Brutal Panda – and Tacos! - on Violent Hippy; 2014 also saw the release of a split 12-inch with Young Widows, through the band's new label Sargent House). Seeing as the band was founded in 2007, and certainly have been playing gigs since then on a regular basis, to say that the band must've concocted its music in seclusion (because that's what's implied, isn't it?) is like ignoring the facts, and just writing down some nonsense in order to make for a quick and sloppy “description” of the band's sound!
Another thing: singer/ guitarist Ben Verellen could hardly be said to be one to have been shutting himself up for years prior to coming out with this band, seen his antecedents. The brother of Dave Verellen (known from such butch outfits as Botch, Roy, and Narrows) started his musical career in 1995 as the drummer of the Tacoma-based Post-Hardcore/ Noise act Harkonen, which left the world in 2005 with 5 releases to its name: 1999's self-titled debut through Wreck Age, before signing to Hydra Head, through which came the full-lengths Grizz (2001), Shake Harder Boy (2002), Dancing (2003), and the swan song Like A Virgin (2005), which was a split with These Arms Are Snakes. In 2002 Ben started the Country/ Folk Rock side-project Roy with his brother Dave and Brian Cook; they released two full-lengths and a couple of EP's, and have been inactive since 2006. Ben performed additional bass duties on These Arms Are Snakes' 2004 debut album Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelopes Go Home, and was a touring member of the band for a short while in 2005. Other guest performances on other artists' albums include backing vocals on Botch's 2006 album 061602, some bass on 2009's What We All Come To Need by Pelican, and additional vocals on Narrows' 2009 album New Distances. Ben also started working as an audio engineer for many underground Washington State bands from his basement as early as the year 2000, and since 2005 he's had occasion to work on signed artists' albums, including Valis (2005's Champions Of Magic), Mastodon (as assistant engineer for the 2006 album Blood Mountain), The Helm (2006's Grim Harvest), Mamiffer (2008's Hirrir Enniffer), and Narrows (2009's New Distances, which he also produced) among others.
If that sounds like someone who's secluded himself from the outside world, then my name must be Napoleon in stead of Tony...I mean, if the facts cited above show anything, it is that Ben in fact has a very outspoken preference for a certain kind of heavy music...his side-step with Roy notwithstanding! In Helms Alee, Ben united with two friends since October 2007, and together they've been having fun hybridizing some of the music of Ben's heavy past with more generally accepted melodies (say even “Pop”), which you might in a way dub as “Melodic Post-Hardcore/ Noise”. Almost inevitably, the heavier side of the music is reminiscent of things like Harkonen and Botch (The Melvins are another band named in comparison, and with some good reasons), with Ben using his voice in a variety of ways, ranging from clean singing to aggressive/ haunting screams. That the girls also do some singing, occasionally in harmony style, has already brought forth comparisons to The Pixies, but really there's none of that lovey-dovey type of vocals which made Kim Deal such a wonderful part of that band.
In the end, one can only conclude that for Helms Alee, comparisons only go as far as for some fleeting passages, and that the band is an entity quite apart within the Post-Hardcore/ Noise genre. To find out whether you like their uniqueness, by all means check the “Music” section at (www.) facebook.com/HelmsAlee, where you are re-directed to the current album's BandCamp page. Enjoy...me, I've found another act which I'll love researching a bit more (I'm definitely gonna try and get some of the band's previous material, you know, even if Hydra Head stuff is darn pricey over in Europe!). Me failing to put the album in my year-lists, is only due to the relatively short time I've had with the album prior to reviewing it (I mean, I think I've only heard the album 4 times so far, but what I heard was of a kind of me wanting to hear more, for sure!).