Helix Scrap Metal Review
Helix
Scrap Metal
Perris Records
2026
The older I get, the more I lean on the music that helped shape the man I am today. Unsurprisingly, most of that music is Metal, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Around the holidays, I lean even harder into those sounds of yesterday. I can’t go home, so I rebuild those memories the only way I know how - through music. That brings us to today’s release: Helix’s “Scrap Metal”. Yes, Helix is still here, and yes, they’re still releasing killer music, as if they’d ever half-ass anything.
Helix and I go way back, but this is the first time I’ve had the chance to write about them, so indulge me for a bit of rambling and a trip down memory lane. I first heard them in 1983 when the video for “Heavy Metal Love” started getting airtime in the early days of MTV. A few weeks later, I picked up “No Rest for the Wicked”, and for a while it was one of the few records I owned, which meant it got played daily after school, mercilessly.
From there, I grabbed “Walking the Razor’s Edge”, “Long Way to Heaven”, and “Wild in the Streets” as they were released. Back then, I would’ve counted Helix among my absolute favorites. There was something special about Brian Vollmer’s voice and songwriting - fun, dangerous, and instantly recognizable. Looking back, it all still holds up. These days, my go-to Helix record is “Long Way to Heaven”. That album hit every sweet spot and scratched every itch I had at the time.
I lost track of the band a bit after “Wild in the Streets” until they landed on Perris Records - a godsend of a label for a lot of classic Heavy Metal bands that deserve to still be recognized and celebrated. If you’ve never checked them out, prepare your credit card and your brain. Their catalog is a beautiful kind of dangerous, and Helix’s later releases are stacked and ready to be dug into.
Now, let’s get down to real business, the new album, which hits the streets in late January 2026. “Scrap Metal” is a collection of unreleased tracks alongside cuts that previously appeared on albums like “B-Sides”, “Old School”, and “Half-Alive”.
To me, this feels like a brand-new Helix record. The new songs carry the same grit and fire they had in the ’80s, and long-time fans won’t walk away disappointed. The lead single, “Stuck in the 80’s,” practically writes my autobiography and the bands at the same time. It’s a battle cry for lifers - the ones still in leather, still in vests, still refusing to go quietly into the night. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a left over from 1987’s “Wild in the Streets”.
“Fast & Furious” does exactly what the title promises - full throttle, pedal to the floor, pure unfiltered Heavy Metal, Helix-style. “Pretty Poison” swings with that mid-tempo, sticky-sweet sleaze swagger that never goes out of style. “Hot Heavy and Wild” carries that big, bold Metal energy that “Rock You” brought back in the day and hearing that spirit still alive is a damn good feeling.
The additions of “Danger Zone” and “Jaws of the Tiger” from the long out-of-print “B-Sides” album are welcome punches to the gut, and I can’t skip over the band’s killer rendition of “The Pusher” from “Half-Alive”. It’s a perfect closer - gritty, dangerous, and loud.
When you consider that Helix has been around since 1974 and is still delivering the goods, it says everything about the band and their fearless frontman, Brian Vollmer. Do yourself a favor and make this the first album you buy in 2026. You’ll be supporting one of the best labels in the game and a band that’s still running the streets louder, wilder, and more dangerous than most bands half their age.
Helix isn’t living on nostalgia, they’re still breathing fire. And “Scrap Metal” is living, screaming proof.