The card carrying members of the Anvil Pounder’s Union will be excited at the news that those Canuckleheads of Metal will be returning for a Spring 2014 tour that they are calling “Hope In Hell”. It’s the name of their most recent album in case you didn’t know and more information comes after the poster below.
The Press Release:
Together now for over thirty five years, the band Anvil received a shot of adrenaline toward their Metal renaissance thanks to the “Anvil: Story Of Anvil” film back in 2008. It was through this documentary that more and more fans found themselves discovering this “brand new Metal thing”so many years after their original inception. Fronted by the Wildman himself, Lips Kudlow along with the pounding drums of the great master Robb Reiner the band continues to deliver exciting and fun Metal shows with Sal Italiano on the bass. It’s loud, it’s fast and its obnoxious at times but at the end of the day you know exactly what you witnessed and you will likely return time and again when possible. The tour seems to begin in our own NYC (bolded below) and helps our concert going fans properly close out on “March Metal Madness” and you can bet that I am going to plan on being there to bring our faraway fans into the mix. Continue reading Anvil Announces “Hope In Hell” Spring 2014 Tour→
Artist: Anvil Title: “Past & Present Live In Concert” (re-issue) Label: The End Records Release Date: 8/14/2012 Genre: Speed Metal/Heavy Metal Rating: 3.5/5
The mighty Canadian Metal band Anvil is in the process of re-issuing their entire back catalog on The End Records and for fans of the band this is a very good thing because many of these albums have not been available for a very long time. Having reviewed this particular release when it first came out, I am re-presenting those original thoughts with some minor edits to reflect the new issue.
I guess one can thank all the buzz that was generated for Anvil with the documentary film “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil”, because it seemed to be only a matter of time before some of their releases made an appearance again. One such example would be the bands 1989 live recording “Past And Present Live In Concert” which judging by the year of its performance showed that the kind of music that Anvil did was already on its way out in the public eye. Yes, by this time in music history, the educated music fan will quickly realize that Metal was passé and the wonderful sound of Grunge was in full sway and gaining dominance of the airwaves. Of course I am being somewhat sarcastic, for while I enjoyed some of the killer Grunge acts I saw no reason for it moving Legendary Metal bands aside. Even though this was not the best decade for Metal, we still get a rock solid performance from Anvil during this show and how could this be anything but the case – the band was still on their own quest for glory and the proper respect from the industry giants who could make them the success but that was still managing to elude them in the blockbuster sense. This album was originally presented to the fans on Metal Blade Records, and now comes to us in remastered format care of the fine folks at The End Records as a larger initiative of getting all of the bands releases back into the hands of Metal fans everywhere. Continue reading “Past & Present Live In Concert” (remaster) by Anvil→
Artist: Anvil Title: “Back To Basics” (remaster) Label: The End Records Release Date: 8/14/2012 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 3.25/5
The mighty Canadian Metal band Anvil is in the process of re-issuing their entire back catalog on The End Records and for fans of the band this is a very good thing because many of these albums have not been available for a very long time. Having reviewed this particular release when it first came out, I am re-presenting those original thoughts with some minor edits to reflect the new issue.
When it came to getting ones fair share in terms of touring the USA, Anvil seemed to be one of those bands and with “Back To Basics” one finds them returning after a very long absence to the public eye as far as the Metal Industry is concerned. While the release is chock full of steady rolling Heavy Metal that’s presented in an Old School, there is little impact in any of the tunes when one compares to their earliest work. We don’t get anything as musically capable as we did on “Hard N Heavy” like “Metal On Metal”, “Jackhammer” or “March Of The Crabs”. We do have several decent rockers such as “Keep It Up” , “The Chainsaw” and “Bottom Feeder” however, the rest is just OK in my opinion. I guess I had expected a little more from them due to the duration in time that I have heard them doing anything. In the end I guess that it is still nice to see them able to generate a steady amount of Metal in any case. The Old School sound or “Traditional” as it is considered nowadays gets a continued life because of their efforts and we cannot complain about that. Continue reading “Back To Basics” (remaster) by Anvil→
Artist: Anvil Title: “Anthology Of Anvil” Label: The End Records Release Date: 8/14/2012 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 4/5
The mighty Canadian Metal band Anvil is in the process of re-issuing their entire back catalog on The End Records and for fans of the band this is a very good thing because many of these albums have not been available for a very long time. Having reviewed this particular release when it first came out, I am re-presenting those original thoughts with some minor edits to reflect the new issue.
With all the hoopla that surrounded the Canadian Heavy Metal band Anvil thanks to the documentary “Anvil; The Story Of Anvil”, I was originally compelled to dig this release out of my personal archives and once again bring it to light for those Metal mavens of the world who might have interest in finding themselves a copy. As many fans already know, the band’s documentary was a blockbuster hit and a film that breathed some new life into their music and career on the whole. The juggernaut of a documentary took the band to the front pages of the magazines once again and had the younger fans saying “oh wow, they are still together?” I admit that even I was a little surprised and after seeing the film myself sat in front of my own music library to see just where this release was because I was very simply dying to blast “Jackhammer” and “March Of The Crabs” at maximum volume once again. For me it was a happy discovery because at the time it was one of three Anvil CD’s that I owned and most of their output was very difficult to find on CD anywhere. If memory serves me correctly this particular compilation was released on Metal Blade Records a little over a decade ago and gave a fantastic view of the band thanks to its eighteen tunes. Granted I was only one of the casual fans when compared to my friends but I liked what I liked and most of those tunes were on this release and that made it a win, win purchase and now thanks to the re-issue, finding this one time gem is no longer like finding a needle in a haystack. The new fans of Anvil will really enjoy this one for sure. Continue reading “Anthology Of Anvil” (remaster) by Anvil→
Artist: Anvil Venue: Highline Ballroom (New York, NY) Opener: Shitkill Date: 11/7/2011 Label: The End Records
It’s been around a year since I last caught Anvil and that made me glad to find the group playing over at the Highline Ballroom because this is such a good venue to see a Metal band in. They have a great stage, lighting rig and so far I’ve never attended a bad sounding show. Now as you all well know, Anvil had been riding high on the success of the film “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil” for a few years now and as result had moved from relative obscurity to larger levels of success and doing tours with bands like AC/DC and being offered better set times on numerous festival appearances in Europe. It seemed as though the band was once again being paid in cash money as opposed to goulash. If you don’t know the reference then you really must sit down and enjoy the film. It’s been a recommendation of mine for quite some time. Here is how the show went down for those who did not manage to attend. Continue reading Anvil @ Highline Ballroom (11/7/2011)→
