Biography
Raised in Medford, Oregon, Hamilton moved to New York to study jazz guitar in the early 1980s. While there, he "discovered distortion" and worked with composer Glenn Branca. Hamilton then joined Band of Susans for their Love Agenda album, after which he started Helmet.
Helmet recorded four albums in the 1990s: Strap It On, Meantime, Betty, and Aftertaste. They had moderate chart success, with their last three albums reaching the Billboard top 100, but difficulty keeping his bandmates together caused them to disband in early 1998.
While Helmet was active, Hamilton contributed guitar and composition credits to the soundtrack for crime drama Heat.
After Helmet split up, Hamilton started Gandhi, toured with David Bowie and explored a variety of musical styles. He recorded Zulutime (noise duets with guitar Caspar Brötzmann), and played guitar on trumpeter Ben Neill's album Goldbug (1998) and alt-country songwriter Joe Henry's album Trampoline. Hamilton has also made appearances on "Unbeliever" by Therapy?, "No, You Don't" by Nine Inch Nails, and "God Forbid" by P.O.D..
In 2003, Hamilton and Charlie Clouser recorded the song "Throwing Punches" for the movie soundtrack, Underworld, which marks the first time the song was credited as a Page Hamilton track - mainly because it was about to be released as part of his "solo" album. However, when Hamilton restarted Helmet with an altered line-up in 2004, the song was released as part of the band's comeback album Size Matters.
In 2004, Hamilton contributed to a KISS tribute album Spin the Bottle: an All-Star Tribute to Kiss with the song "Calling Dr. Love".
In 2005, Hamilton contributed to the Metallica tribute album Metallic Attack: The Ultimate Tribute, with the song 'Motorbreath' with Scott Ian of Anthrax.
On 18 July 2006, Helmet, with further lineup changes, released their second post-reunion album, Monochrome.
Hamilton has also been involved in music production, most notably producing "Distort Yourself" by Gavin Rossdale's band Institute, Bullets and Octane's second album, In The Mouth Of The Young, released in 2006, and the Classic Case album Losing at Life.
During the 2008 tour of Australia, Hamilton told fans that he was going to work on a new Helmet album with the band over the next 18 months. Their latest album, Seeing Eye Dog, was released on September 7, 2010.
In 2008, Hamilton co-wrote, recorded guest vocals and guitar on the Norma Jean album entitled The Anti Mother. He is featured on the eighth track titled "Opposite of Left and Wrong."
Recently, Hamilton was featured on P.O.D.'s album When Angels & Serpents Dance.
Read more about this topic: Page Hamilton
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