Anvil: Anvil Is Anvil

Canadian diehards keep their aim true

anvil

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Whatever the prevailing wind, Anvil have always been unyielding.

You know what to expect from any of their albums, and anything on Anvil Is Anvil could be swapped for tracks from their classic early 80s period without disturbing the flow. And that’s why this is such a metal testament. The band’s style has always been proto-power metal, their brushes with brutality liberally laced with enthusiastic riff punches that nod towards Motörhead and Priest. But what makes the album work is that there’s an unconditional freshness about the band. They race into every track with such zest and command that you’re soon totally immersed.

From the humour of the pirate metal romp Daggers And Rum through the socially aware Gun Control, the storming It’s Your Move (with a deliberate bow to Ace Of Spades) and the martial Forgive Don’t Forget, the record is stuffed with fire, ire and what can only be described as classic Anvil moments. There’s no attempt to appeal to a new audience, no compromise for the commercial good.

This is Anvil, unreconstructed, led from the front by Lips, with his barking vocals and yelping lead guitar breaks. A cracking ride.

Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021