Tag Archives: steve “lips” kudlow

Features, Giveaways

Win To See Anvil @ Santo’s Party House On 3/26/2014

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Poster - Anvil at Santos - 32014

The Details: For the past thirty five years Anvil have proven themselves to be Road Warriors and a band whose very existence is a testament to the power of friendship and a common goal. The world witnessed this with the hit documentary film “Anvil: The Story of Anvil” but the band didn’t sit back and let their overnight success spoil them and instead kept on touring and releasing music. The band is now signed to The End Records and is supporting their latest release “Hope In Hell” and thanks to the awesome folks at Livenation, PiercingMetal is going to put a few lucky fans into the show. Read more below on how to participate in this March Metal Madness contest.
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Events, Reviews

Anvil @ Highline Ballroom (11/7/2011)

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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.
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Events, Reviews

Anvil @ Gramercy Theatre (3/19/2010)

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Anvil was back and riding high on the success of their documentary film “Anvil The Story Of Anvil”.  The last time around that they visited, it was to present the film and then perform a few numbers for media outlets and a few select fans.  It was a great time and we wished them well in recharging the batteries in their already lengthy career.  Tonight the band would be touring as the sole main act and depending on where they played, an area support band would start off the fun.  There would be no movie shown and that was fine by me since I’ve already seen it a few times.  It would be held at the Gramercy Theatre and Long Island’s own Misery would open the show.  You can check out the full concert article below.

Logo - Anvil 2

Artist: Anvil
Venue: Gramercy (New York, NY)
Opener: Misery, Toothgrinder
Date: 3/19/2010
Label: VH1 Classic

March Metal Madness was continuing and spring was almost in the air so you know that this brings to mind thoughts about what to do in the season and – Anvil. OK, so maybe not so much but despite this, those stars of the celluloid world were officially back in NYC and ready to kick our asses once again. You’ve most likely seen the bands documentary movie “Anvil: The Story Of Anvil” by now as it has aired on VH1 numerous times and been the topic of discussion on more Metal sites and magazines than I could possibly count. The original plan was for the band to perform after a showing of the movie, but this changed very early in the touring run and it became known how the band would instead play a full set and have local area bands leading off the night. For many people this was a better deal because the movie has been shown and promoted to death and if people want to see it at this point they are best served to buy the official DVD. This evening the gig would be started off by Toothgrinder from Asbury Park, NJ and Misery who are from a little closer to home, and sadly we would not catch more than one final song from the young Toothgrinder. I am sure that they will be back around sometime in the future and when that happens I will try to catch them. I did speak to them briefly downstairs in the venue’s lounge and they seemed to be nice guys who really want to play Metal for the world. Good luck Toothgrinder. Misery was coming up as direct support tonight and would be on in minutes it seemed.
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Music, Reviews

“We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year” (EP) by Various Artists

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Artist: Various Artists
Title: “We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year” EP
Label: Armoury Records
Release Date: 11/24/2009
Genre: Holiday Metal
Rating: 2.5/5

This is a review of the four-song EP that is being released as a digital download only companion piece to the original release of “We Wish You A Metal X-Mas & A Headbanging New Year. Since we reviewed that recording last year, we are representing it to get you up to speed and then we shall examine the new four song EP tracks. We enjoyed that original album and gave it a ranking of 4/5. Read on.

“I’ve been a fan of the holiday juggernaut that is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for several years now, but there was no way that my experience with that would have prepared me for how Twisted Sister would deliver their “Twisted Christmas” release. I bring them up as it originally hit me as one of the most absurd items in reviews to do pile but after several listens I found myself intrigued at just how well the conventional Metal vibe worked when crafted together with Holiday classics that they chose. It was an album that left you hungry for more and that made the arrival of the “We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year” release something I was eager to dig into. The players on this one are as vast as the Metal genre itself and as result finds legends like Alice Cooper and Ronnie James Dio performing along with the likes of diverse quality players like Steve Lukather and Ray Luzier and many, many more. The vibe of this release is rather heavy which was good and I admit it that it almost felt like a Motorhead track when Lemmy gave it a go at “Run Rudolph Run”. Shock master Alice Cooper and John 5 delivered the creepiest “Santa Claws Is Coming To Town” I’ve ever heard and believe me at the end of this one, the fact that he knows when you are sleeping and knows when you are awake will scare the Charles Dickens out of you. Winners come shining through during a few numbers like “Silver Bells” which has a powerful modern Metal drive to it and Geoff Tate singing and I felt the same way about the albums opening title track that gave us the magical voice of Jeff Scott Soto, a singer I have always been able to enjoy. Dio is at his ominous best with Mr. Iommi and company for “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and the best way to describe this one is as imagine the band Heaven And Hell doing the track. Weird huh, but it does work on some levels. I had to say that I was put off by the Death Metal growls of Chuck Billy and Thrash treatment given to “Silent Night”, as this is a track that I like to much to see given such a reworking.
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Events, Reviews

The Anvil Experience @ Blender Theater at Gramercy (4/6/2009)

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Anvil - The Story Of Anvil

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.

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