Bullets

Bullets

GIMME THAT CAN OPENER, IT’S ARMORED SAINT

Mark J. Norton

I was listening to the Bulgarian underground sensation, A Rumored Saint, eating a correctly-titled Armour hotdog, when the urge to interview 19-year-olds from Pasadena, California swept over me. I walked—nay, ran— down to the record store and purchased the debut LP by Chrysalis Records’ Armored Saint. It is titled after the group’s favorite month, March Of The Saint.

March is the month I ponder heavy metal from California. Armored Saint’s lead vocalist, John Bush—who is shorter than the average American male—assuaged my fears: ‘‘We identify with midwest heavy metal. We grew up listening to Ted Nugent and guys like him. California is a pretty laid-back type of place.”

California may be laid-back, but Armored Saint would have none of that nonsense. They properly paid their dues in the garage, and their mothers’ collective Joan of Arc-type headache must’ve wished the garage was much larger. Housing a sound as heavenly heavy as Armored Saint was no easy task, Saint John allows: ‘‘Soon we were playing clubs, getting very popular.”

Rapidly, Armored Saint became too big for California’s britches, and they got signed to a major label. They were the opening act for Quiet Riot and Whitesnake on the “Metal Health Tour 1984.”

Considering these young Californians were the targeted audience of Deep Purple in the ’70s, Armored Saint must have been purple with pride to open for Whitesnake. ‘‘Are you kidding?” Bush suggests, displaying more Saintly roots, ‘‘It’s a dream come true! We grew up listening to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and the Who. I mean, to open a show for our boyhood idols is nothing to sneeze at. How many other guys get to do something like that?”

And how many other guys get to face 15,000 screaming teenagers every night? What if you, dearest reader, could have the opportunity to spread your highly personalized message across such a vast audience? Would you shout at the devil, would you admonish the faithful to take drugs, would you suggest debauchery of all manner? “We look on the positive side of things,” Saint John says, “what’s the point of looking on the bad side? When you come to an Armored Saint show, it’s time for release. Get rid of all that anger and frustration! Go nuts!

“I mean,” Saint John continues, “I’m a regular guy. I like basketball and baseball. I love going to movies. But I change when we play. We all change. We put on our stage gear, go wild, then after we’re back into our jeans and tennis shoes. Black leather jackets. I just think everyone should evaluate their personal position in life, and use their heads before doing anything. Think. For yourself.”

And what are you thinking about when you write songs? ‘‘We’ve done all kinds of things,” Saint John confesses. ‘‘That’s what we write about. Personal things, like relationships. If a girl steps on me, I write about it. Life itself. Everyone’s got a story.”

Indeed. I submit this plot to Saint John, hoping he will provide an adequate conclusion: if Quiet Riot and Ratt were trapped in a burning building and Armored Saint could only save one group, which would it be? ‘‘No comment,” smiles Saint John. This young man may be smarter than the average heavy metal meatball.

This is good.

HELIX, n., THE THREAD OF A SCREW

Kenneth B. Giles III

Once again, Canada comes through with a rock sensation to add to the long list of influential performers to emerge from the Great White North. You know, bands like Rush, Triumph. LOVERBOY???

Anyway, now we have Helix, yet another metallic outfit from Kitchner, Ontario, who— through sheer persistence— has not only achieved headliner status north of the border, but has also managed to escape from Canada. They’re currently banging across America.

And since touring conditions have improved dramatically, so has the band’s will to prevail.

“We toured all of North America and Europe in a van last year,” reports lead singer Brian Vollmer, “and we took whatever dates we could get. We were with ROM booking and we told them: ‘It doesn’t matter if we’re playing for free, just make us play’ and they tried to keep us booked up.”

Helix was in the States twoand-a-half months and logged over 22,000 miles playing 69 one-nighters. The band returned home to make their second video before flying to Europe to support Kiss in Spain, England, France, and a score of European countries. The tour supported their first Capitol release, appropriately titled No Rest For The Wicked.

“We try to take as little time off as possible, because everybody’s used to that, and it keeps your record company hyped about the band. So it’s a real plus just to keep working.”

Helix has always hit it hard. Before the band was even signed to Capitol, they were constantly touring Canada.

“We must’ve played every club in Ontario,” Vollmer continues with pride. “We had two albums released on H&S records which we sold off the stage. We sold 10,000 copies apiece and went into the studio to do the third album the same way. And when we shopped around to see if anybody was interested, lo and behold, we got signed to Capitol records.”

Vollmer makes it sound easy, but Capitol looked our heroes over nearly 10 times before finally signing them.

Musically, Helix is perhaps the most unique pop-metal group currently struggling up the charts. Vollmer’s scratchy/smooth voice is a welcome relief from the generic screech heard on most metal discs.

“It’s called having throat nodule once-upon-a-time,” he chuckles. “The same way Rod Stewart, Steve Marriot, Bon Scott and everybody else get their sound. Singing so many days in a row, your voice gets that coarse edge on it.”

The band’s latest record, Walkin’ The Razor’s Edge, is tighter and, at times, of a harder style than its predecessor, but by blending definite R&B roots with a personalized harmonic style, songs like the second single, “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’,” display the more eloquent melodic side of the band.

“I can see how it (Walkin’ The Razor’s Edge) would be heavier,” Vollmer admits, “but we’re not making a conscious effort to go that way. We’re trying to put more melody into our songs, and we’ve written five or six for the next album with a lot of harmonies happening.”

The first single, “Rock You,” summarizes the group’s attitude toward their craft in metal-anthem form.

“I don’t get into really heavy lyrics because I don’t want to tell kids how they should think and be. Groups that really bother me are ones that are always bringing up problems, problems, problems, but never giving any answers.”

Vollmer goes on to credit AC/DC, Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper as some of his favorite performers.

“Something with a touch of humor—and you can draw whatever meaning you want on a song.”

Onstage Helix is twice as dynamic as on vinyl, and sure to be show-stoppers once they achieve headline status. Part of their set is choreographed and known within the band as the Heavy Metal Ballet. Vollmer’s favorite stunt is somersaulting off of the drum riser five or six times a night.

Throughout, Helix has a powerful balls-to-the-wall attitude. Onstage and off, the group’s unspoken motto seems to be something in the area of “Shut Up And Dance.”

BR0NZ: THE COPPER CONNECTION

Sharon Harrow

“We come to where we’re appreciated,” explains Shaun Kirkpatrick, guitarist for Bronz—England’s latest hard rock import—recently on their first American tour.

“In England, if you have long hair and wear a leather jacket, you’re a heavy metal band,” says lead singer Max Bacon. “It’s all fashion. The music doesn’t really matter.”

Getting people to listen to them despite the latest fads in England hasn’t been easy. When they first started playing professionally, he recalls, people were caught up in the punk uproar, and they really didn’t fit it. When England fell into the clutches of Duran Duran and the other pretty boys, they didn’t fit again. And now, though they may be labeled a heavy metal band, the piano, harmonies, and lack of leather and studs don’t make them fit any better.

They fared well on the British heavy metal charts with their first single, “Send Down An Angel,” from their album Taken By Storm, and were often compared to the likes of Journey and Foreigner.

“We’re aiming for music that will stand the test of time. You can take out a Foreigner album record, and it still sounds as good as it first did. You can enjoy it for what it is, and not because it was this or last week’s color. It’s held up on its own,” says Bronz founder Chris Goulstone.

England wasn’t the right place to pursue their brand of melodic hard rock music. “If you’re in a rock band, the best thing to do is just get out of the country. If you want to break into the market, you won’t do it in England. With the English market, you tend to be around for a week and then gone,” says Goulstone.

To The Land Of The Free they came, with video in hand. Though they make appearances on MTV and cable music shows, it was the audience that surprised Bronz the most—being stopped in the streets by enthusiastic fans is something they were never used to. In England, they explain, concert excitement is contained to the first five rows; afterward, everyone goes home. Very often they’d be backstage, wondering if they’d had a good show or not.

“America is the rock ’n’ roll country. The country’s geared for it and everyone’s excited. In my town, everyone knows who I am and what I do, but they would never say anything about it. They’re too restrained,” says Bacon.

Things may be a bit better in their own country, though. Since being in America, “Send Down An Angel” has been getting played on Radio 1, the BBC’s station. “We have to come over here to get our single played in England,” says bassist Paul Webb. “We were appreciated, but we never got that immediate feedback. The first few rows were your fans, but the rest is mostly other musicians who are ripping you apart.”

‘‘If we would dress different,” said Bacon, ‘‘wear different colors in our hair and spike it up, or wear dresses like Boy George, perhaps we would have been a huge success in England.”

AIRRACEER-HEAD?

Andy Hughes

As the British ‘‘invasion” shows no sign of a let-up, it was only a matter of time before a British band took an American style back home. That band is Airrace—and they show positive signs of breathing down the necks of Foreigner and similar AOR mega-stars. So how does a band from England come to be making a name with a style that has been synonymous with Stateside for the last 10 years?

‘‘It’s totally unintentional, it’s just the way I write, reckons guitarist and founder member Laurie Mansworth. ‘‘Of course, / don’t hear the ‘American’ sound, because I’m listening from the other side.”

It’s not contrived, but Airrace’s melodic but heavyedged rock sound is earning them a deal of respect in the States.

At a time when record contracts are signed because you wear the right shade of eyeliner rather than the record company A&R man liking your guitar slung low, Airrace did it the old way. They slogged their way round rock clubs in their native London, eventually working their way up to support slots with the likes of the awesome Def Leppard (an export success story to aim at if ever they needed one!) and Ted Nugent. A contract followed, and the band flew to New York to record their debut album.

So why does a band who’ve spent their life slogging around getting their faces known in Britain suddenly opt for an American studio?

‘‘It was the choice of our producer, Beau Hill, answers Mansworth. ‘‘If he’d found a studio he liked in England, we’d have been more than happy to have recorded there. But Beau likes the studios he knows, so naturally we took his advice.”

Naturally. When your producer is known for putting Ratt’s Out Of The Cellar album on millions of turntables ’round the world, you don’t argue. In spite of Laurie Mansworth’s own HM pedigree and the aforementioned abilities of Beau Hill, the band’s debut album does lean towards the smoother AOR sound so often scorned by so-called ‘‘serious” rock fans. Were Airrace ignoring potential listeners who wouldn’t get further than diving for the dial when ‘‘I Don’t Care’ wafted their way?

‘‘I don’t think so. I still feel that people appreciate good playing and good vocals. Our live shows will demonstrate that we do have a much harder side—and we intend to bring that out more on our next album. For the moment, we’re happy with the airplay and critical reaction we’ve been getting, and the reception at our live shows has been very good indeed.”

The buzz in America? When word got out that the band was in New York to record, fans began arriving at the studios and hanging out, waiting for a chance to speak to the boys. Signs that any critic would have to agree look very good for the future of Airrace.

Integrity rides high with this band—witness their avowed intention to shun any publicity they could gain from their drummer, Jason Bonham. If the name’s familiar, it should be—Jason is the son of late, lamented John Bonham, powerhouse behind Led Zeppelin and influence on a thousand drummers in the following years. For Airrace, Jason is just the drummer in the band—no more, no less important than anyone else. And good luck to them for that.

If Airrace arrive in your town on a support slot, or headlining at the local club, check ’em out. They look set to be the next in line of bands that make it in America and return to Britain in triumph.