REVIEW: Helix – “(Gene Simmons Says) Rock is Dead” (2016 music video)

HELIX – “(Gene Simmons Says) Rock is Dead” (2016 music video from the forthcoming album Rock It Science)

“I don’t need no god of thunder to tell me what is great.” — Brian Vollmer

Helix are back once more, with a new greatest hits album called Rock It Science.*  You gotta have a new song on a new greatest hits (teased previously as “Mystery Track”), and this new song is timely and sharp.  Gene Simmons does indeed say that rock is dead.  In fact he’s been saying that for over 25 years.  I have a M.E.A.T Magazine interview with Gene from 1990 where he professes that rock is indeed dead.  And he’s still saying it now.  But Brian Vollmer retorts, “Don’t believe it when Gene Simmons says rock is dead!”

Sure, lots has changed, but Helix keeps going.  It’s not the 80’s anymore.  Very few can sell 2,000,000 copies of an album today.  It’s hard to make a living just by selling records.  You have to diversify.  Everything has changed — but like many things, the more they change the more they stay the same.  Rock is not dead.  In many respects, rock is more popular than ever.  Helix are still producing great quality music, and “Gene Simmons Says) Rock is Dead” is one more gem for their rock crown.  Daryl Gray and “Fritz” Hinz are still there on the rhythm section.  Chris Julke and Kaleb Duck handle the axes just fine.  This could have been on an album like Back for Another Taste.

As far as the video goes, Brent Doerner directed this one.  The Gene impersonator is bang-on — I hope Helix don’t get sued for this!  The video celebrates the old school.  It’s performed at Speed City Records in London, Ontario.  (Look for cool posters of bands such as Gob and VoiVod, who Gene slammed in the 1990 M.E.A.T interview.)  I really dig Daryl Gray’s Helix logo bass guitar.  That looks like a bitch to play.  Brent captured the fun side of the band in the video.  It’s not glossy, but I think it does the trick.

There’s no release date yet, but Rock It Science should be available to purchase soon.  Check out the CD cover, also designed by Brent Doerner.

Rock is dead?  Hardly.  Gene’s been wrong before, and he’s wrong again.

4/5 stars

ROCK IT

*The title It’s ROCK Science, Not Rocket Science was a working title for 2009’s Vagabond Bones.

 

 

30 comments

  1. Good song as it has that Helix swagger to it. Video is hiliarious! $immon$ should Just laugh at this video…nice to watch something lighthearted and not to serious considering what’s going on in the world today!
    Nice vid Dr!

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    1. I’m a Dr now? COOOL

      Yeah lighthearted…but yet subject matter close to our hearts right? I hope Gene finds it amusing. I mean it’s not insulting in any way at all. My review was more insulting to Gene that this song was.

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        1. Yes! I don’t know if you heard about the recently discovered asteroid that is a mini companion to Earth? Well turns out it’s not an asteroid, it’s a Hammond organ!

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        1. In all seriousness, with Toronto being a sort of mid-point…we could absolutely, one day, do a Record Store Excursion Meet-up with Mr. A-Ron. Probably Boppin would be in.

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  7. Not a bad tune. Interesting (in the video) that a lot of the records at the front of the racks in the shop were at least 30 years old, though. I hope they got permission to film in the cemetery, you can read family names on some of the stones.

    Still, I like the sentiment. Who cares what that one guy says about something larger than himself?

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