ANVIL – Back To Basics

The line “Hurts So Good” was coined and made famous by John Cougar Mellancamp, but nothing describes better Anvil’s latest release Back To Basics. Make no mistake about it; this is “ugly” music in its purest form. The band still looks about as attractive as a festering boil on a fat lady’s rumpus, the music and musicianship is still as “no frills” as a bag of airline peanuts, and the song topics and lyrics are certainly rudimentary at best. When all of this sub-mediocrity is wrapped together, however, what you have is Anvil’s proclaimed theme of going “back to basics” with this album … and you know, IT WORKS!

As has been the case since 1996, Anvil is comprised of singer/songwriter/lead guitarist Lips, drummer Robb Reiner, lead guitarist Ivan Hurd, and bassist Glenn Five. Now about 2 years since the band’s last release in 2002, Still Going Strong, Anvil has decided to keep it simple and straight-forward with Back To Basics. Lips’ trademark vocal style of having so little range that it almost sounds like he’s speaking the words instead of singing is the first thing that hits you in the opening track, “Fuel For The Fire,” which is a fast paced Power/Classic Metal song that serves this album extremely well as its opener. Lips’ vocal style essentially makes the need to include lyrics for the listener to follow completely unnecessary because his enunciation of each syllable is so overly stressed that it’s almost impossible to miss any of the band’s messages … the most interesting, of which, is found in the second track, “Keep It Up,” which is a tribute (of sorts) to erectile-dysfunctional medication such as Viagra! Although obviously pretty light in content, this song is also a complete success.

Anvil keeps up a somewhat humorous demeanor in the third track, “Song Of Pain,” which definitely has the most clever lyrics on the album and best chorus: “Sing me a love song / Sing a song of pain / They’re one in the same.” Fourth is “You Get What You Pay For,” which is the 4th winner in row … another in your face, no-frills Metal song whose title simply says it all! “The Chainsaw” is next, and although the most brutal song on the album, it is virtually identical in musical structure and pace to Judas Priest’s “Rapid Fire” from their British Steel album in 1980. Anvil slightly changes the guitar chord scheme, but the parallels are vividly evident … still, though, the song rocks! Rounding out the string of back-to-back quality tracks is “Can’t Catch Me;” a song dabbling in relational infidelity, and again incorporating a touch of humor into the lyrics.

The next three tracks, “Go Away,” “Bottom Feeder,” and “Cruel World” bring Anvil back down to earth a bit as these are all a step below the quality of the first six. They’re not awful, and “Cruel World” actually has a tinge of genuine emotion sliced into it, but none of these three have that “something special that’s hard to pinpoint” about them to make them “eye-openers” like their predecessors. The album ends, however, with “Fast Driver,” which has both a fast and driving pace … and is just a flat out good song!

Call it returning to the “roots” of Metal, call it turning away from current trends in Metal, or simply call it going back to the basics of what Anvil does best … in the end, call it a VERY successful effort by these Canadian rockers that’s so tongue-in-cheek “awful,” that it’s great! If you’re a Metalhead who likes it hard, fast, and simple (without any keyboards or other French pastry), check out Anvil’s Back To Basics release … you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

As a side note, this album comes with a DVD of the band’s live performance at the Wacken Festival from 1998. The set list is as follows: “Five Knuckle Shuffle,” “Smoking Green,” “Old School,” Winged Assassins,” Forged In Fire,” “March Of The Crabs,” “Metal On Metal,” “666,” and “Mothra.” Similar to the music within the Back To Basics CD, the concert footage is as vanilla as it gets, essentially just showing the band performing the songs on stage with zilch for a stage show other than the band grooving to their own performance and feeding off of the packed crowd’s enthusiasm. Overall, it’s a nice addition designed to be an added “gift” to old-time, die-hard Anvil fans.