Artist: Anvil Venue: Blender Theater (New York, NY) Event: “The Anvil Experience” Date: 4/6/2009
If one goes back in time to the heyday of “Big Metal” during the eighties, and all of the myriad bands whose music thundered out of our stereos, there was always one name that came up as being held in high esteem by the likes of Metallica, Anthrax and many, many more – that band was none other than Canada’s Anvil. They all loved the band and each seemed to have been influenced in some sense by their sound, drive and manner of delivery. Having grown up in the Metal eighties, I owned a few of the bands earliest and most influential releases myself. Among them “Metal On Metal”, which was my favorite based on songs like “Jackhammer” and “March Of The Crabs” and I think the other ones were either “Hard ‘N Heavy” or “Forged In Fire” but I am not 100% sure at this point in my life. Perhaps I had both of them, but its been so long since I have dug into my record collection that I no longer remember. It looks like a trip down to the parent’s basement is in order sometime soon.
Artist: Anvil Title: “Back To Basics” Label: Screaming Ferret Wreckords Release Date: 8/24/2004 Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 7/10
Canadian Metallers Anvil was one of those bands that seem to have never gotten their fair share of touring in the USA. The release of “Back To Basics” comes 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 in an old school fashion, there is little impact in any of the tunes. We don’t get anything as musically capable as we did on “Metal On Metal” or “Jackhammer” and “March Of The Crabs”. On the CD there are 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. 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 continued life because of their efforts. Continue reading “Back To Basics” by Anvil→
