Hellion (band) - Debut Release

Debut Release

In 1986 the new Hellion released their first full length album, Screams in the Night. The album gained substantial national and international radio airplay and the video, "Bad Attitude", was shown on MTV (both in the daytime and on Headbangers Ball), Sky Channel, and other music programs. In a similar sense to Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil-era and early W.A.S.P. the band played with elements of glam metal; but taking influence from the likes of Dio-era Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and Alice Cooper.

However, by the end of the year, the new line-up began fighting about the band's musical direction. Members blamed Ann Boleyn's insistence on a European-style heavy metal direction that including occult and anti-social themes in her lyrics as the reason for their failure to secure a major-label recording deal. About this same time Burn disbanded, leaving Ray Schenck, Alan Barlam and Sean Kelley without a band. Anxious to get back to work, members of the Mark 1 line-up returned and entered The Record Plant in Los Angeles with their long-time friend Angelo Arcuri (who engineered the first three albums for Dio) and recorded the "Postcards from the Asylum" Mini-LP "just for fun". At one point Hellion's remake of the Judas Priest classic "Exciter" was listed on the play-lists of over 124 radio stations. Two months later, despite being over seven minutes long, "The Evil One" surpassed the earlier single, boasting listings on 128 U.S.stations.