When you’re 30 years in the heavy metal music business — surviving through little to no fame (certainly no fortune) and countless albums released on independent labels to little attention — does it ever cross your mind to give it up? It might have crossed the minds of Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner of the band Anvil, but boy you’d never know it by watching the film Anvil! The Story of Anvil.
This poignant documentary follows the band (mostly Kudlow and Reiner) through their day jobs in their home country of Canada over to Europe for a botched tour. There are moments when the four-piece band are playing a club with no more then 50 patrons are thrashing their heads.The film also touches on Kudlow and Reiner’s family lives and their latch ditch effort to record an album (their 13th) that they hope will turn things around so Anvil can get the respect and attention they deserve.
As guest stars like Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash and Slayer vocalist Tom Araya attest at the beginning of the movie, there really is no reason why this band, one of the heaviest of heaviest, never made it. Anvil’s Metal On Metal album, released in 1982, is considered a classic of the genre, and in the opening scene of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, we see the band way back in the day playing at a huge rock concert in Japan — every bit as popular and well-received as Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and others on the bill.
Lips is definitely a great frontman, the songs are tight and Reiner is a solid drummer. The reason this band never ‘made it’ is one of those indefinable questions of life, but the spirit of Kudlow and Reiner (Anvil has a younger bassist and guitar player now) is not to be denied. And sure there are those special Spinal Tap moments here and there, but really what you come away with most is how much Kudlow and Reiner love what they do. What’s more, how much they love one another.
Directed by filmmaker Sacha Gervasi (Anvil actually met him backstage during their first tour and he has remained a fan to this day) this is a no holes barred, warts and all foray into a side of rock and roll many are unaware of. It’s more then just the story of a band though; it’s the story of two guys, tighter than brothers, who believe in what they do so much that they just simply keep doing it. There is redemption at the end, a concert moment to make one cheer, and the last shots of Kudro and Riener standing in what amounts to a Times Square-like spot in Japan is pure and joyful cinematic bliss.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil is one you gotta see.
Ralph Greco
