HELIX frontman Brian Vollmer has issued the following update:

"Next Thursday (September 18th) we will be releasing our 12th full length studio CD A Heavy Mental Christmas which features new arrangements on nine cover songs plus one brand new Helix original.

The idea came about this summer when I was in Montreal, during a meal with (BW&BK; scribe) Mitch Lafon. We were eating at an outdoor café; it was a beautiful sunny day and the sidewalks were full of locals and tourists. Not exactly the kind of day you would associate with Christmas. That’s where the idea was born. From there I made a deal with Wal-Mart and we don’t even have the songs picked! I decided to use my live band on the recordings for the first time in many years (*note: Cindy and Rainer Weichman played on Rockin’ In My Outer Space but it was before they were actually in the band) and I was not to be disappointed. The guys played great and although it’s a Christmas CD I believe it sounds like Helix. And it rocks!

Here’s the song list:

'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer'

'Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree'

'Santa’s Back in Town' (ELVIS PRESLEY)

'Wonderful Christmas Time'

'Jingle Bell Rock'

'Happy Christmas War is Over' (JOHN LENNON)

'Sock It To Me Santa' (BOB SEGER)

'Jingle Bells'

'Silent Night'

'It’s Christmastime Again' (original: Vollmer/Prior/Georgakopoulos)

The last piece of promoting A Heavy Mental Christmas is to back it up with as many live dates as we can muster between here and the end of the year. Next month we’ll be in Toronto, Whitby, and Hamilton and in November we re-visit my hometown of Kitchener at Molly Blooms on the 1st, followed by 12-15 dates across western Canada. All along the way we’ll be trying to gain as much publicity as possible by radio and through the print media."

Read Vollmer's entire update here.