If anyone wants to make the obvious comment go ahead, but remember that in 1980 I was seventeen years old, so it’s not that surprising that most if not all of the Metal albums that made an impression on me would come from that decade. As did this one.
Metal on metal --- Anvil --- 1982 (Attic)
Second release from Canada’s premier Metal band, this was an album I loved and have continued to have great respect for. Unlike the previously featured “MSG”, I know exactly why I bought this, and it was indeed down to that tome of all things Metal, “
Kerrang!” I read the review of this and I just knew I needed to buy it. With their debut album released in 1981, two years before two of the “Big Four” and three and four years respectively before the other two, Anvil have had a significant influence on many of the bigger metal bands, including these four giants, and are still going strong today.
Not surprisingly, we start off with the sound of, um, metal on metal as the idea of a hammer striking an anvil is recreated by drummer Robb Reiner (bet he gets lots of versions of “I loved the work you did on Lethal Weapon” etc!) as the title track gets us in the mood with a hard, grinding rocker with great snarling guitars from Dave Allison and also from vocalist Steve “Lips” Kudlow, whose voice is gravelly but understandable, giving you the real idea of someone perhaps toiling in a smithy while using his off-hours to crank out some furious riffs and sing about his work. Solid. There is of course nothing original or new in the lyric, but well that’s not really what Heavy Metal is about, is it?
One of my favourite tracks on the album, “Mothra” sees the boys pay homage to one of Godzilla’s enemies, the giant moth, and the tempo speeds up as Allison is let loose on the fretboard. The song really does a good job of capturing the excitement and yet basic silliness of the Japanese monster movies of the sixties, and you could almost imagine this translated into Japanese and being used in one of those classic battles. Hey, they could do worse! There are definitely elements of the music that characterised the NWOBHM over the far side of the world here, and “Stop me”, the longest song on the album opens on single, jangly guitar before cutting into a fine introductory solo from Allison, Kudlow putting in one of his best performances on the album.
To be fair, the song is really quite weak, almost wimpy with its lovesong lyric, but it’s nowhere near a ballad, and its hardness is reasserted by the flying fingers of Dave Allison. Even so, it’s a sad followup to “Mothra”, a very basic rock’n’roll track that I could have done without. If only they had taken their own advice! An instrumental is up next, the only one on the album --- and from what I can see, only one of two they have recorded to date --- as “March of the crabs” gets Anvil back some of their balls, Allison and Reiner thumping out a hard-hitting melody that rocks along like there’s no tomorrow. Reiner then leads in another of my favourites, the groove/boogie “Jackhammer” (no, not our beloved member!), driven on a machine-gun guitar and rolling, galloping drumbeat, it shows the boys right back on form after the embarrassing “Stop me”.
There’s little subtlety in the lyric ---
”Jackhammer pounding your pile/ Jackhammer you’re gonna cream” --- but who need subtlety when the music is this good? Anvil keep the pressure right up with “Heatsink”, another screaming rocker with scorching solos and a battering backbeat (yes, I like my alliteration, don’t I?) while “Tag team” slows things down but retains all the heaviness you’ve come to expect from these Canadian metalheads, with a punchy, marching song that no doubt has fists pumping the air at live gigs.There’s a full-out twin guitar assault then for the bitter “Scenery” ---
”Dyed blonde hair/ Makeup packed on thick/ The way you look/ Could make your mother sick/ Gave me that look/ That I've seen before/ Give up babe/ I find your type a bore.” --- heavy stuff guys! Real Lizzy vibe to the guitars here, then we’re into the slightly less than insightful “Tease me, please me”.
You don’t really expect too much from a song with a title like that, and what you get is a fast headshaker with formulaic lyric but riffs to die for, and a chance for bassist Ian Dickson to show what he’s made of. The last track I have something of an issue with. Having professed no interest in Satanism prior to this, Anvil’s decision to close the album with the thrashy speed monster “666” is an odd one. It seems to me that they were just trying to hitch a ride on the emerging Black Metal bandwagon driven by Venom and Bathory, while those two spin the wheel and try to shake them off, roaring "F
uck off! You're not real Black Metal!" It's true though; they're not, and despite the fact that Kudlow sings it well there is no real sincerity or belief in the lyric. It just seems like something they thought they could, or should do. They can’t, and they shouldn’t have.
TRACKLISTING
1. Metal on metal
2. Mothra
3. Stop me
4. March of the crabs
5. Jackhammer
6. Heatsink
7. Tag team
8. Scenery
9. Tease me, please me
10. 666
Even given the almost embarrassing “us too!” of the closer, this is a great album. If you're looking for deep meanings in lyrics or subtle nuances in playing, you had best search elsewhere. These guys don’t do subtle. But if you want a rollicking good ride, an honest-to-goodness metal free-for-all, you’ll get it here. Even though it’s over thirty years old much of “Metal on metal” has retained its relevance, and the fact that Anvil have had such an influence on some of the bigger bands as I mentioned in the intro, and that they’re still going strong, must say something for Canadian metal, eh?