Canadian steel legends ANVIL will embark on a headlining U.S. East Coast tour within the spring. Assist on the trek will come from comic Don Jamieson and MIDNITE HELLION.
Tour dates:
April 17 – Portland, ME – Geno’s Rock Membership
April 18 – New Haven, CT – Cafe 9
April 19 – Syracuse, NY – Track & Dance
April 22 – Amityville, NY – Amityville Music Corridor
April 23 – Clifton, NJ – Dingbatz
April 24 – Bensalem Township, PA – Damaged Goblet
April 25 – Mechanicsburg, PA – Loverdraft’s Brewery
April 26 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
April 27 – Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theater
April 30 – Tampa, FL – The Orpheum
Could 01 – Orlando, FL – The Conduit
Could 02 – Jacksonville, FL – Underbelly
Could 03 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Could 04 – Nashville, TN – Cobra Lounge
Could 06 – Knoxville, TN – Open Chord Stage
Could 07 – Newport, KY – Southgate Home / Sanctuary
Could 08 – Cleveland, OH – The Winchester
Could 09 – Chicago, IL – WC Social Membership
Could 10 – Flint, MI – Machine Store
In a latest interview with Victor Ruiz of Indicators From Mars, ANVIL frontman Steve “Lips” Kudlow addressed the truth that his band by no means fairly hit it large regardless of being musically forward of their time, because of a mix of poor administration, shady report labels and dangerous luck. He mentioned partly: “How do you assume it appeared to [ANVIL drummer] Robb [Reiner] and I to observe, in 1983, the entire world choose up on what we did and go away us behind? We had been doing it earlier than… Metallic did not exist in North America. They did not name it steel. We had been doing one thing that they had been doing in England, and we had been one of many very first steel bands to play in America. Yeah, you’ve got received laborious rock, however there was a distinction. There was a distinction between laborious rock and steel as a result of laborious rock was nonetheless connected to rock and roll. It nonetheless used rock and roll progressions. Metallic used extra of a prog angle. You had songs that had been rather more sophisticated than simply rock and roll. Actually, IRON MAIDEN‘s ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ and songs like that, or ANVIL‘s ‘Mothra’. It is not rock and roll. It is a type of it, however it’s steel, that turned it into steel, what we name steel. And riff rock. That is what it’s. And you’ll put titles on it, however you may also speak about it in musicality, what issues we’re really doing. In order that’s how I sort of see it. So there was a distinction. And a number of the issues that I have been confronted with is that I am sort of the bridge between laborious rock and heavy steel, as a result of I used to be one of many pioneering bands that created that bridge. So I had songs — I nonetheless have songs that enterprise again into the rock and roll world, however on the similar time, there are songs that aren’t rock and roll.”
Lips continued: “We are able to sit and focus on how laborious rock grew to become steel and positively BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN had been the forerunners of all of it, actually. As a result of that is the largest affect after [Jimi] Hendrix, the usage of distorted guitars and stuff, and abruptly, everyone’s doing it. Nothing stays sacred. All the things is stolen by the subsequent technology and regurgitated in a brand new style. And that is what’s been happening within the music business for many years now. However I believe we’d’ve gone the complete circle. You definitely cannot go a lot additional with guitar. The guitar’s completed its factor, man. It is completed. And that is a part of the place the downslide for the curiosity in it went. As soon as you bought to the purpose the place the guitar enjoying is so phenomenal that everyone begins sounding the identical — you’ll be able to’t inform one guitar participant from the subsequent — it is completed. It is over. The race is completed. You already know what I imply? For a lot of, a few years in laborious rock and steel, it was who had the most effective guitar participant of their band. All the things was revolved across the lead guitar. I imply, in any other case what would VAN HALEN imply with out Eddie Van Halen? It is centered across the guitar, which everyone knows, clearly. Everyone knows that. However we’re at some extent in historical past that they’ve completed every part. Each attainable manner of enjoying lead guitar has been completed. So what do you do? What’s there left to do? Write good songs. That is all that is left. It is not concerning the guitar solo anymore. It is concerning the fricking music. The riffs final endlessly. The solos are right here briefly. It is the best way it’s, man.”
ANVIL launched its twentieth studio album “One And Solely”, in June 2024 by way of AFM Data. The trouble was recorded in the summertime of 2023 with longtime producer Martin “Mattes” Pfeiffer and Jörg Uken at Uken‘s Soundlodge studios in Germany. The identical manufacturing staff was accountable for ANVIL‘s final 4 albums, “Anvil Is Anvil” (2016),“Pounding The Pavement” (2018),“Authorized At Final” (2019) and “Influence Is Imminent” (2022).
Launched in 2008, the ANVIL rockumentary “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” was the directorial debut of screenwriter Sacha Gervasi (“The Terminal”) and was produced by Rebecca Yeldham (“The Kite Runner” and “The Bike Diaries”). The movie follows Kudlow and Reiner and their band, ANVIL, which launched one of many heaviest albums in steel historical past, 1982’s “Metallic on Metallic”. The album influenced a complete musical technology of rock bands, together with METALLICA, SLAYER and ANTHRAX, who all went on to promote thousands and thousands of data. ANVIL, however, took a distinct path — straight to obscurity. The movie was each entertaining and touching because it adopted their last-ditch quest for the celebrity and fortune that has been so elusive to them.
Picture courtesy of Airrick Nh