Anvil strikes back

For Toronto-based heavy metal group Anvil, it’s been a good few years.

“These years, how could you not smile?” asked Robb Reiner, drummer for the band and star of ANVIL!  The Story of Anvil, the highly-regarded rock-documentary directed by former band roadie Sacha Gervasi that became a word-of-mouth hit following its premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

The film’s success has helped put Anvil back on the popular heavy metal map, seeing the band perform live in support of groups like Saxon and AC/DC and featured at the 2009 Download Festival, held in June at England’s Donington Park.

“We’re just celebrating,” said Reiner in a recent interview with WTF?! with Jason Ward. “For (Sacha) this is vindication.  For Lipps and me, it’s just celebration.”

ANVIL!  The Story of Anvil follows the band over the course of two years as they struggle to achieve the success they’ve been striving towards since the early 1980s when they performed original songs like “Metal on Metal” and “Jackhammer” on the same stages as Bon Jovi, the Scorpions and Metallica at heavy metal festivals around the world.   In the midst of trying to record their thirteenth album with ex-Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy producer Chris Tsangarides, the group contends with profitless European tours, day jobs with a Toronto-based children’s catering company and dwindling support from family members.  Many critics have hailed the band’s story as a true-life version of the infamous rock-mockumentary This is Spinal Tap! from 1984.

“We’ve been successful in a certain sense, but in a way that we’ve wanted to be,” said singer-guitarist Steve “Lipps” Kudlow.

“There’s a lot of things we could have done and, in fact, we did do them, but not in a way that would be accessible.  In our own way, actually purposely staying and being what you are, sticking to your guns is precisely what we did as an underground band. “

The documentary, on DVD and in stores on Tuesday October 6th, went on to win awards at film festivals in Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, California and was nominated in the “Truer Than Fiction” category to recognize emerging directors of non-fiction films at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards.

The beginnings of the group harken back to 1973 when Steve Kudlow and Robb Reiner were classmates in a Toronto high school, finding in each other a common interest and passion for music.  By 1978, the pair had formed their first band and by 1984 were touring around the world with a sound that would come to be known as speed metal in the hands of bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth.

However, mainstream success did not follow them as easily as it did those they influenced.  While able to tour with some notoriety in Europe and Japan over the last two decades, Anvil remained relatively unknown in their hometown.

“There’s actually a level of comfort in that,” said Lipps.  “I go to these places and I can’t walk around but I come home and no one knows who I am.”

“It’s a cult-status thing.  What this movie is is a celebration of that.  It’s not like we sold out or became something other than what we were.”

With their newfound popularity, Lipps and Reiner don’t find themselves in Toronto too often, but have many good memories of enjoying the local music scene from over the years.

“I used to always hang out at the Gasworks,” explained Lipps.  “That was a cool place.  (Also) Rock & Roll Heaven and Larry’s Hideaway.”

“A Foot in Cold Water, April Wine,” remembered Lipps when asked about his favourite live and local performances.  “ I saw those bands at York University.  (Also,) Crowbar downtown at Eaton’s College Street.”

Anvil’s latest album, 2007’s This is Thirteen, has recently been re-issued by VH1 Classic Records and the band is looking forward to heading back into the studio.

“Our new album, Juggernaut of Justice, is going to be the best Anvil album ever,” explained Reiner of the band’s fourteenth release, which they hope to begin recording early in 2010.  “The material that we wrote was under positive, happy conditions.  We’ve always been inspired to write, always, but there’s new energy.”

“We’ve written twenty songs already,” said Lipps. “We’ve gotten way ahead of the game…so there’d be at least an incredible array of songs to choose from when we go to do it.”

“You have to create music that only you can create.  And if you do that, then you know you have something.  And it doesn’t matter what anybody else tells you.  It’s yours and it’s worth something.”

Originally published on the WTF?! with Jason Ward Blog at Q107.com
October 6, 2009