The Story of ANVIL

I have never been a Anvil fan but i'm interested in seeing the movie.

SAXON1500 wrote:

nitro2 wrote:

These guys are the polar opposite of Axl Rose, maybe that's the root of their problem$$$.

That is the root of their GREATNESS!!

Well you got that right. These guys do what they do, very well, and with no fanfare/flash whatsoever. Very humble. Though it seems the divas get all the $$$.

For anyone reading that is not familiar with Anvil, it can be a bit of an acquired taste, their musical style and sound is somewhat different than any other band I can think of, not radically different, but when someone hears a song performed by Anvil there is little chance they'll think it is some other band playing it.

Saw "That Metal Show" with the guys from Anvil. I will definitely be getting this when it comes out on DVD.

So what was it? As a kid growing up I bought just about everything under the sun that was released and metal related. How did this band fly under the radar for so long?

kethdredd wrote:

Saw "That Metal Show" with the guys from Anvil. I will definitely be getting this when it comes out on DVD.

So what was it? As a kid growing up I bought just about everything under the sun that was released and metal related. How did this band fly under the radar for so long?

They were big, in Canada (and probably Europe), briefly in the early 80's and played some pretty good sized venues. They came in just a little before the Metallica etc. craze. Their two most famous albums came out in 1982 and 1983. After their 15 minutes of fame I guess they were unintentionally relegated to near obscurity by the vast array of new metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Helloween, on so on that popped up out of nowhere all at once. Had Anvil showed up in 1985 or a little later, they might have faired better. But I think the main thing they needed at the time was likely an aggressive promoter.

Another band with a great one of a kind sound (at least for the first couple albums) was Exciter. Looked like they were going to the top, at the time (1983/84/85). I believe Anvil, Exciter and Annihilator (Jeff Waters) members still hang out together and Jeff Waters has been actively involved in Anvil albums/European schedules.

Ya know, you could probably have "The Story of Exciter", and it wouldn't be all that different, I would guess. They have kinda had the same experience, all the way down to being Canadian.

SAXON1500 wrote:

Ya know, you could probably have "The Story of Exciter", and it wouldn't be all that different, I would guess. They have kinda had the same experience, all the way down to being Canadian.

Probably similar except for one very important thing, Exciter hasn't had their original lead singer Dan Beehler for eons and without him and John Ricci together in the band, Exciter is not really Exciter, no matter how good or bad they may sound. Kind of like Judas Priest without Rob Halford, Jugulator had some decent enough songs, but for all intents and purposes it was not really Judas Priest, it was just a different band with some good songs.

Anvil has had minor changes to band members but the members that create the Anvil sound have persevered through thin and thinner for about 30 years, they always sound like it was 1982 or 3. Now if we could only get Metallica sounding like 1983 again all would be right with the world !!!!!!!!

true, true.

I just got back from the break room and who should CNN be interviewing but Lips and Robb from Anvil , the interviewer claims he watched the movie 5 times, these guys handled themselves with humor answering the same questions they must already answered 5000 times at this point.

These guys are really going out thier promoting their movie, it is good to see that sometimes the good guys do get to win.

Well, I guess this movie is doing what it's meant to do...make people aware of Anvil.

2 younger guys in my department watched the trailer for the film, then asked the old metal head in the back, yours truely, if I ever heard of this band. I said "Sure do" and brought in my anthology disc for 'em. I may have created 2 new fans of Anvil. Or 2 more illegal downloaders. Could go either way I suppose.

I REALLY want to see this movie. I've never really got into Anvil, mostly due to their comically bad lyrics for about half of their material, but they do have a really good classic metal sound. I like the thought of the whole "brotherhood" aspect as well. The closest it will come to me (most likely) is Omaha, at a specialty theater. I'd like to get tickets, but I'm guessing I will probably miss it for one reason or another :/

I just got done watching the movie and I think it was great! I couldnt believe some of the things that happened to them during their tours but I kind of saw it coming. I dont own one anvil cd but now I think i'll own them all haha.