Juggernaut of justice --- Anvil --- 2011 (The End)
I haven't listened to any Anvil since 1982's “Metal on metal” (remember “Mothra” and “Jackhammer”? Ah, those were the days!), and in between they've had another twelve albums, this, their latest, being their fourteenth in total (see? You even get elementary maths lessons here at the Playlist of Life! Who says these journals aren't educational?), so it's therefore been twenty years, more than half my life, since I've last heard the
shrang! of Steve Kudlow's (better known as “Lips”) guitar or indeed his rasping voice, or the thunder of Robb Reiner's powerful drums. So let's see what they've been up to, shall we?
Oh yeah! There's that powerful sound I remember right from the off, as the title track gets us underway! An acknowledged influence on bands such as Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica, it's not hard to see why Anvil are revered as they are. I might as well have hopped in a handy TARDIS and jumped back to 1982, and I am so there! Great fretwork from Lips, that familiar pounding on the skins from Reiner (not to be confused with the director!) and as ever, Glenn Five's bass keeps everything tight and under control. The younger among you may think of them as Metallica rip-offs, but hey, these guys were headshaking and air-punching years before Hetfield and the boys were even heard of. Well, not quite, but they were well-established by the time Metallica really began to break through.
“When Hell breaks loose” kicks the stays out and ramps the speed up to ten, maybe eleven, and “Lips” Kudlow goes berserk on the guitar, the song delivering a face-punching ending that literally takes all your energy and leaves you feeling like you just ran ten miles uphill. In contrast, “New Orleans Voodoo” is a slow, ultra-heavy metal cruncher, or perhaps I should say crusher! Like the blacksmith's tool that gives them their name, Anvil are all about heavy with a capital H, and if you don't watch it you could get flattened. Great solo from Kudlow here while Five lays down the meanest bassline you're likely to hear this year.
Things speed up for “On fire”, with a kind of Thin Lizzy vibe to parts of the guitar work, and the pace doesn't slacken for “****eneh!”, a real headshaker with guitar Jimmy Page would be proud of! At a guess, I wouldn't think this is liable to get much radio airplay! “This ride” powers along like an out-of-control locomotive, while “Not afraid” is a fast rocker which proudly wears its metal heart on its equally metal sleeve, “Conspiracy” a face-melting cruncher with a dark, politically-charged message, then “Running” kicks back into top gear and top speed.
Black Sabbath meets Metallica meets Venom as “Paranormal”, the longest track by far on the album, clocking in at a staggering seven minutes --- which for Anvil is epic! --- pours its dark, moody, brooding cargo out upon us. Perhaps the most musically inventive too, of the tracks on the album, it features what I believe may be the first studio drum solo on record and then powers up for its breakneck ending. It's a real vehicle though for Kudlow's deep, throaty growl of a voice, and he measures up to the task admirably. Closer “Swing thing” is just pure fun, an instrumental where the guys get to add in some brass from somewhere and manage to create a sort of forties Hollywood feel to the melody, with some great finger-burning fretwork from Lips and the kind of drumming that must have left Robb Reiner totally exhausted. Unexpected, it's a great ending to a really great album.
“Juggernaut of justice” proves, if there were any doubt, that Anvil still have it. One of Canada's prime rock exports, they've charted a course through the world of heavy metal for over thirty years now, and though they're not regarded as superstars, there are many bands who owe, if not their existence, then certainly a lot of their influence to these guys. Godfathers of the Canadian heavy metal scene? You'd not be far wrong.
And “Juggernaut of justice” shows them still with their albeit somewhat aged hands firmly on the levers of power.
TRACKLISTING
1. Juggernaut of justice
2. When Hell breaks loose
3. New Orleans voodoo
4. On fire
5. ****eneh!
6. Turn it up
7. This ride
8. Not afraid
9. Conspiracy
10. Running
11. Paranormal
12. Swing thing