12 Inches Of Heavy Metal Love

It seems that most people don't care about singles, so of course that just makes me want to collect them. One man's indifference is bound to be my obsession. Sure, it feels kind of pointless adding them to the collection, but there is no doubt that I still get a big kick out of buying them now an then. When I was flipping through the used bins during a quick shopping trip at Moody Lords in Portland, I came across this UK 12 inch single for Heavy Metal Love from Helix.

Dude, I was all over this style of music a few years ago, and I was a man on a mission, filling holes in my collection for stuff like this. I've been more focused on hardcore lately, and it has been a while since I've give Helix a spin, but this single is a nice reminder on what a good time they can be.

Two songs here from the 1983 album, No Rest For The Wicked, a song from their 1981 album, White Lace & Black Leather, plus one exclusive track with Everybody Pays The Price. This is a cool collection of songs, and at five dollars, the price was right.

No Rest For The Wicked

A month or so back, I picked up the first Anthrax album from an eBay seller. That record was in top condition and I was happy with whole exchange. The seller and I sent a few messages back and forth, and when he mentioned that he was slowly listing a few pieces of his collection each week, I knew that I was going to have to keep an eye on his auctions. A couple of weeks later I found myself back and placing a bid.

A couple years back, I rediscovered a few bands from my early teens that I'd completely forgotten about. Bands that really helped to lead me down the path of heavy metal. They may seem kind of light weight these days, but back then they were a huge influence. One of those bands was Helix. I grabbed a couple of their records back in 2019 when I was getting down with this band again, and while I'd also wanted a copy of No Rest For The Wicked, it just didn't happen at that time. When I saw that my new favorite eBay seller had a copy available I was able to grab it as the only bidder.

No Rest For The Wicked was Helix's major label debut in 1983. I know that either my brother or I had the cassette for this album, but when I revisited it a couple years ago, I had no recollection of any of these songs. As kids, we probably didn't stick with Helix very long before we were off chasing something heavier and faster, but now...man, this record is so much fucking fun. The title track is probably my favorite Helix song ever. So good.

Young & Wreckless

Like Krokus, Helix were one of the first metal bands that I stumbled upon in the early 80's. In the time before MTV, there were stations that would have late night programming exclusively for music videos. As a pre-teen that was hungry for more music, I hunted it out wherever I could, and that included catching shows like Night Flight and Friday Night Videos, hoping to catch something that was new and captured my attention.

I remember catching the Rock You video from Helix on one of those shows, and immediately needed to hear more from the band, so ran out to buy Walkin' The Razor's Edge to add it to my very small cassette collection of Heavy Metal.

Back in '84, this album was huge for me, but after a couple of years, and digging deeper and deeper into harder and heavier music, I eventually just sent it to the trash bin. Thirty five years later, I've rediscovered this record, and I'm having a complete blast listening to it again.

When I found this copy of the record in the store, the price tag was a bit more than I had planned to spend for this one, but it was still sealed and I couldn't resist. Still blows my mind to find these older records unopened...and then I immediately rip the cellophane wrapper off and put the record on my turntable.

As I was digging through the used bins in the local record stores, I was hoping to walk away with a handful of old Helix records, but unfortunately, I only found one other one that was in the condition that I was willing to buy...Wild In The Streets from 1987.

My memory is hazy on this one. I want to say that I bought this one on cassette as well...and if I did, it would have been the last Helix album I would have bought...but other than the terrible album cover, I really don't remember anything about this one. If I did buy it when it was released, it did not get much attention on my stereo...which is funny, because in 2019 I absolutely love this fucking record. Man, what a good time. This one is going to be getting daily spins for a while.