anvil: the true story of anvil

It would be very easy to compare Anvil with Spinal Tap.

Indeed, I think in the way it's been put together and with the events it portrays there's more than a small nod to Spinal Tap. A lot of bands claim to have been the inspiration for that film, but the reality was it was likely a combination of stories put together to form a band that represented them all. I'm not sure if Anvil was one of those bands, though they'd be in the right time period - part of what's called NWOBHM.

NWOBHM stands for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and encompassed bands like Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Saxon. I was too young for NWOBHM when it happened, but the American scene it went on to inspire - Trash/Speed metal - that featured bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer probably represents the high-water mark of my interest in music.

Anyway, the point about the Anvil film is that they were a Canadian band that were actually part of that NWOBHM thing but that never really seemed to break into the big time. The documentary opens with some interviews with big musical stars - Lars Ulrich, Lemmy, Slash, etc - who all site them as a great, talented band that they couldn't understand why they'd never really hit it big.

The band themselves are shown working dead-end jobs, still chasing success some 30 years after forming. The film follows them on what can only really be described as a disastrous European tour, through the making of a new album with a classic break-up and reform for the band, rejection of the album by major labels, and a degree of success in Japan.

As I say, it's all very Spinal Tapish. And it's pretty entertaining.

However, what I would have been more interested in would have been more of the background and more of the history. How come they never managed to break through? What actually happened? No clear reasons emerge.

I've no real clue as to why they never got that initial break, but I get the feeling it's clear why after reaching a plateau and declining they've never really gotten back up there. Basically, musically, they seemed very good - you could imagine what I heard of most of their songs working if they were put out by plenty of bands. And they were extremely tight and clearly very talented musicians.

Lyrically things were a bit lacking, though. Where the lyrics of the songs they played from on the first few albums fitted in with the times (you can clearly hear the same sort of stuff on early Metallica and Megadeth albums), they don't ever appear to have really progressed from that. The lyrics for the new songs we heard seemed very cheesy and, to be frank, didn't scan well.

Also, the singer, Lips's voice seemed to have seen better days. Or at least, where the high pitch yelling vocal style is something he was capable of doing in his youth, now that he's a fifty year old man it just sounds cracked and broken.

In other words, there seemed to be a lack of any real progression in what they were doing. So, with that having failed to hit the first time, it kept on missing as they stayed in the same place. One of the A&R men even said it - things have moved on a lot.