Review of Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) by Devil's A — 04 Aug 2009

So, within a few days I'll be seeing AC/DC in concert, but now I think I'm even more psyched to see these guys! I was a die-hard metalhead in junior high-school, and if quizzed about it circa 1982, I would have sworn my favorite musical acts were Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue and Judas Priest.

Sadly (or ultimately for the better), around the mid-to-late-eighties my metal heroes were releasing pretty weak albums and thrash was beginning to dominate. The likes of Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer began to emerge and, at the time, I just didn't see any appeal in this sort of music so I drifted away from metal into classic rock and then alternative music.

I was certainly aware of Anvil's existence back then (what with their "Metal on Metal" anthem a particularly heavy contribution on my "Masters of Metal" K-Tel tape from 1984), but I made the mistake of writing them off as meat-headed thrash.

Fast-forward 25 years (yikes!) and I rediscover Anvil thanks to this tremendous documentary. Like a head-banging companion piece to "American Movie", "The story of Anvil" is truly heartfelt and inspirational.

At age 14, neighborhood pals Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner vow to "keep rocking forever" and eventually launch the arguably-way-ahead-of-it's-time metal band "Anvil" in the late seventies.

The film begins with vintage concert footage taken in Japan in the early eighties with Anvil playing alongside big-name acts at the time like Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, and the Scorpions. The footage is telling, however, since it's clearly a case of "one of these things is not like the other".

Other metal bands at the time were pretty, well-put together and relatively radio-friendly and Anvil were none of those things. Nowadays, metal luminaries like Scott Ian, Slash, Lemmy, Lars Ulrich and Tom Araya can recognize Anvil as the godfathers of thrash, but at the time, the sound hadn't been accepted as the natural evolution of metal.

As a result, Anvil peaked a bit too early and then vanished into obscurity as other younger metal acts influenced by their sound came along and claimed the spoils when the sound became more accepted. The guys in the band never gave up playing local club gigs while holding down a day job but the dreams of rock stardom stayed alive.

A girlfriend of one of the band members sends the group on a European tour which begins well enough. Anvil plays at a few metal festivals where fans obviously "get it" but it's difficult to watch when their former contemporaries snub the band backstage.

Things then take a decidedly "Spinaltappian" turn when their travel plans begin to fall apart and they start playing in crappy clubs to only a handful of people and are constantly under threat of rip-off from crooked promoters.

Undaunted they compile a handful of new songs and try to commit them to a new record under the trusted watch of producer Chris Tsangarides who worked on their earlier albums. Unfortunately the fees for the studio time puts the band in hock and things get even more dire when they begin to realize that the brief window in which their sound was acceptable has long since past and no major record label is even vaguely interested in releasing an album from an unmarketable metal band in their fifties.

Needless to say, the story from there continues to surprise and if anyone has completely abandoned their dreams in the cold face of practical, day-to-day anonymous work drudgery are invited to watch this great film and be prepared to keep hope alive.

This is one of the best documentaries in recent memory and a must-see for just about anyone. Seek it out.