Metal on Metal.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil.

Anvil is a Canadian band that was started by “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner. Lips is the singer and lead guitarist and Robb is the drummer. At the age of 14/15 they met each other and vowed to rock on till they die. They are now in their 50’s and still rocking on.

That right there is enough to say that this movie is awesome, and it’s real. I mean I cant trust guys to come out next week for stuff when they say they are, never mind sticking with me for 35 years. To top that, there are hardly any bands still together after 35 years…but Anvil is. Oh and this is a DOCUMENTARY, it’s real, at times you may think it’s a Mocumentary, but its not!

Anvil is a rock band that has made 12 albums (this doc covers the band while they are making their 13th album). Their most famous album was “Metal on Metal”, and was their second album. In the early 80’s a bunch of bands performed in a big time Japanese show and all of those bands (including Bon Jovi and Metalica) went on to be big successes, but Anvil was the ONLY band that didn’t go anywhere. What’s even more dry is that most of the bands were envious of Anvil and stole from them. They blew away Twisted Sister (by the bands own admission) and Motorhead, Guns and Roses, Anthrax etc, all talk of how they wanted to be like Anvil.

We are then taken to the present where Lips drives a delivery truck that brings food to schools. He explains how the menu changes ever day. Some of the workers know he’s in a band some don’t. Most don’t care. They just know him as the delivery guy.

Anvil wanted to make it big, but had bad management, bad record labels and bad luck. They finally go on tour and everything goes to shit. I wont spoil anything, but it’s not pretty. But they rock on. Lips and Robb never give up their dreams. Their wives and siblings think they should but they wont. They never give up.

This film is an inspiration to all in ANY field of creativity. Whether you are a musician, writer, director, sculptor etc. This film isn’t really about rock and roll, or even a band. We never see the songs in full, we never really get an origin of the band, some brief stuff about how they met, but this isn’t about Anvil per se, it’s about 2 men with a dream and they wont give that dream up no matter who tells them to.

The best line I have ever heard came from this film, and is said by Lips:

“We went on tour and everything went wrong, but at least there was a tour for stuff to go wrong on.”


5/5

J-Man