Vagabond Bones

Veteran Canadian rockers Helix are back with their new album Vagabond Bones. This marks the first time that the classic 80's line-up has gotten together since the mid 90's. Things really fell apart for this band back in 1991 when guitarist Paul Hackman died in a bus accident while the band was on tour. Gradually, things disintegrated leaving lead vocalist Brian Vollmer holding the bag and the rights to the Helix name. He released a couple of solo albums before re-forming Helix back in the late 90's. In a curious situation, he had 2 versions of the band; the recording version and the touring version with only Brian being the common denominator in both versions. This lasted for a few years with many successful Canadian tours and a rather fine studio album, The Power Of Rock 'N Roll a couple of years back. With Vagabond Bones, Brian Vollmer has retained his long-time writing partner, Sean Kelly but the remaining members of the classic 80's line-up have returned to the band permanently. Along with Brain Vollmer (lead vocals), Helix is once again united with Brent (The Doctor) Doerner, guitars, Daryl Gray, bass and Greg "Fritz" Hinz rejoining the band.

In this day and age of hour long running times for albums, Helix offers only 9 new songs, clocking in at just under 32 minutes. We can forgive if someone wants to release an album of 40-45 minutes like the old days but 32 minutes? The songs themselves are pretty standard 80's style "riff rock" with a certain tongue-in-cheek catchiness that Helix always had. The Animal Inside (Won't Be Denied) and Go Hard Or Go Home start off the album with their classic 80's style and fist-pumping, gang style choruses. Nothing really all that spectacular here yet the AC/DC influenced title track really kicks ass. This one's classic riff-oriented "boogie rock" that has the classic Helix catchiness. Monday Morning Meltdown continues the riff-rock fest with more of a Cheap Trick style chorus. The rockabilly flavoured When The Bitter's Got The Best Of You leads into Hung Over But Still Hangin' In. This one features a plodding and heavy, bluesy Nazareth feel with former Killer Dwarf lead vocalist, Russell (Dwarf) Graham sharing the lead vocals with Brian Vollmer. The classic hair metal balladry of Best Mistake I Never Made leads into the up tempo, Bon Jovi flavoured Make 'Em Dance. The album ends with the heavier and very catchy Jack It Up.

Very simplistic both in sound and in song styles, there's a definitely a few gems here in what is otherwise a fairly standard Helix album. I thought that the The Power Of Rock 'N Roll was much more energetic with better songs and sounded much more like classic Helix than this does. Ironically, it's the classic 80's line-up listed on this album yet it doesn't sound like it. I suspect that it was the "studio" Helix that recorded this album with the members of the classic line-up only listed. The classic line-up is currently on tour with an added 2nd guitarist. They still do put on a great show and I suspect that Vagabond Bones will surely please the long-time fans but how about a few more songs next time guys?