Long Way to Heaven

Studio album by Helix

Released

November 9, 1985

Genre

Hard rock, heavy metal

Length

36:25

Label

Capitol

Producer

Tom Treumuth

Helix chronology

Walkin' the Razor's Edge
(July 7, 1984)

Long Way to Heaven
(November 9, 1985)

Wild in the Streets
(June 21, 1987)

Professional ratings
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Allmusic

Long Way to Heaven is the fifth studio album by the Canadian heavy metal band Helix. This album was their third for Capitol Records, and there were bigger expectations from the band after the success of the previous Walkin' the Razor's Edge (featuring the hit "Rock You"). The first single was "Deep Cuts the Knife", cowritten by Paul Hackman and Bob Halligan, Jr. The song received heavy airplay in the U.S., gaining "double breaker" status, and in Canada was added to heavy video play on MuchMusic. Q107 in Toronto had the song riding at #1 for several weeks on their "Top Ten at Ten". Their first tour to kick off the album was in Sweden where they became the first Canadian rock band ever to tour that country extensively. For this they achieved their first #1 album in that country.

Returning to North America, they toured with Accept and Keel, as well as headlining dates. They also played odd one-off dates with Meat Loaf and Heart. While headlining in Newfoundland, a local band called KAOS opened for Helix. This band featured Rainer and Cindy Wiechmann, who joined Helix 19 years later in 2004, on lead guitar and backup vocals respectively.

The second single released from the album was "The Kids Are all Shakin'", a song inspired by a fan letter from Poland. The album went platinum in Canada and they headlined their first Canadian tour with the Headpins as the supporting act. The Long Way to Heaven album was released for the first time on CD in September 1999.

There was a remix made of "The Kids Are All Shakin'" which was used in the music video. The audio track was not available for purchase until the Helix Deep Cuts compilation of 1999.

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Wikipedia