The 1981 Listening Post - Helix - White Lace & Black Leather

Helix - White Lace & Black Leather 

#66X

1981 Housekeeping

Helix

White Lace & Black Leather

Genre: Canadian Priest

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Long Distance Heartbreak

Someone really really really wants to be Judas Priest. But without the edge or the songs, it just comes across as “Dammit, they were there first and we’ll never be as great.”

I’m being relatively harsh on Helix. The songs are perfectly fine for the early opener to the masters. They are one of those wannametal groups that you know fit on every big festival list but never headline. 

I wanna like Helix, and I do on songs like “Hangman’s Tree”, which are not great, not even very good, but they seem to love what they do and they do it without trying to be scary or too demonic. 

They’re nice metal guys. Canada nice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkT_UzVvovY&list=PLSIs4voBRsYbVZkERdsDs0Gfb75DhBjLX

The 1985 Listening Post - Helix - Long Way to Heaven

Helix - Long Way to Heaven

#486/1119

November 9 1985

Helix

Long Way to Heaven

Genre: Hair Metal

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

House on Fire

Helix is back at it. 

I got halfway through and then I realized I better take some notes.

This is every hair metal band’s fans started a band and made an album. Nothing is terrible, nothing is great. 

I kind of like “House on Fire”, though. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHXtcb6II4E

The 1984 Listening Post - Helix - Walkin' the Razor's Edge

Helix - Walkin' the Razor's Edge

#188

July 7 1984

Helix

Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Rock You

When the Hammer Falls

You know what? After all the experimentation and synth-rock I had no idea that I missed good ol’ hair metal. Not since Kick Axe have we had some on this project, huh? And they, too, were from Canada. These guys are the Great White North’s Crue, especially on tracks like “Young & Wreckless” and  “My Kind of Rock” except when they are Def Leppard (“Rock You” “Feel the Fire”) or when they are Priest (“Animal House” “When the Hammer Falls”) or Poison “(Make Me Do) Anything You Want” 

These guys just wanna be Ratt’s more accessible cousin (“Six Strings, Nine Lives”). I think they’re better. This is such an improvement over their last record.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/walkin-the-razors-edge-bonus-track-version/714952293

I’ve never wanted to be in Winnipeg in March in my life. http://planethelix.com/events/march-22ndclub-regent-center-wkickaxe-the-killer-dwarfs/

The 1983 Listening Post - Helix - No Rest for the Wicked

Helix - No Rest for the Wicked

March 1983
Helix
No Rest for the Wicked
Grade 2.5
Highlights:
No Rest for the Wicked

Grade 2.67 out of 5

Take Ratt (seriously, would someone take them?), add a dash of REO Speedwagon, scramble up the most obnoxious parts of Vince Neil (i know, I know) some AC/DC obsession with “rock” and a lot of hairspray and that’s this record.
Helix sounds like every band from the early 80s. But while I miss many of them (Screaming for Vengeance, Blizzard of Ozz) or could discover things I missed (Metal Health) this is just a muddy entry that doesn’t really cut through.
Serviceable and forgettable.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6inGsj5Y4cLfUHDhqnWzI7…