Yep, I finally got around to watching the Anvil documentary (much like the official Treblinka boxsets, better late than never!). I enjoyed it for what it is, but it wouldn't rank among my top movie-watching experiences, so forget about a formal review. It being about Anvil is a bit of a double-edged sword--certainly, I was positively predisposed towards the film just from liking their music. On the other hand, it doesn't go into much depth about the band or their history, and it's not a metal documentary per se; it's obviously framed as a human-interest documentary about two aging bandmates trying to persevere. Clearly the intent was to appeal to a much wider demographic than metal fans, which is no issue in itself.
It's hard for me not to be cynical about the portrayal of the band's situation. A major narrative here is the little guy--er, band--overcoming the odds and succeeding, but the documentary makes Lips and Robb seem like overexaggerated underdogs. Now, I'm not privy to their record sales or their post-Attic relationships with labels and management, but they were consistently releasing albums (and licensing foreign pressings*) on established labels, so clearly things were not as dire as they're made out to be in the film. Perhaps they were not getting the visibility and recognition they desired, but there were bands far worse-off and/or crippled by obscurity than Anvil. They wrote songs about the value of autonomy and not succumbing to trends, so it's difficult to believe they were that naive about the state of metal and the music industry 15+ years after having any significant commercial attention. I realize Sacha Gervasi had to create a compelling story for viewers whose prior knowledge of Anvil was nonexistent, so a lot of a the footage maximizes sympathy for the band out of not-that-uncommon band situations such as low gig turnout or label rejection letters. Maybe it's the film, maybe it's his stubborn doggedness, maybe it's a mixture of both, but Lips unfortunately comes off as a bit oblivious and Spın̈al Tappish.
I wonder if the film really had that much of a lasting impact on the band's status. I remember the expected temporary spike in interest back when it was released, but the band appear to have been too heavy and cartoonishly lewd for even the VH1 Classic/Heavy Metal Parking Lot-20-years-later demographic. I've personally never met or heard of anyone who became a fan of Anvil (or metal in general) just from watching the film; several non-metal fans have told me they really liked the documentary and people in it--but not the band's actual music. It seemed to me like Juggernaut of Justice had a higher profile upon release than any of their albums since the '80s (though that impression largely comes from all those advance 2-song CD-singles ending up in the sale bins), and around 2010, one of my local record stores suddenly stocked copies of the Metal on Metal reissue. Perhaps the visibility helped them get a Japanese licensing deal again, as coincidentally This is Thirteen and subsequent albums have all had Japanese pressings (the previous 3 did not).
Does Anvil really deserve more? Hard to say. Obviously I overwhelmingly favor their '80s material, but I don't consider them to have ever made any unforgivable musical missteps.** Quality over longevity any day, but really, don't writing "Metal on Metal" and "666" earn you some slack when even your newer stuff is still fairly solid? I'm not sure. I can understand being repeatedly told that Metal on Metal and Forged in Fire are heavy metal classics isn't much consolation if you want a certain degree of commercial success to validate your career as a musician. Still, Anvil haven't fared that badly; most metal bands will never be loaned a Chris Tsangarides-production-budget amount of money or have a former roadie make a critically acclaimed documentary about them. And yet had no documentary ever been made, I don't believe anything would be significantly different--still a new album every couple years, with alliterated title of course...
Random post-viewing thoughts
- No matter how brief the appearance, any movie is immediately improved by inclusion of footage of one of the Nifelheim twins and/or Carmen Appice.
- Honestly, onstage persona aside, Lips comes off as...very boring. I realize the blue collar family man thing fits the context of the documentary, and it's well past the heyday of the band when the majority of any debauchery was likely to happen, but c'mon...The guy's gimmick is playing guitar with a vibrator, and he came up with some fairly raunchy sex-themed songs to boot! It's pretty disappointing that serving mac and cheese to his kid is the best footage of his home life they could come up with. At least Robb's painting hobby was somewhat interesting.
- Speaking of raunch, were either of these chicks subject to the activities of any of the more colorful Anvil songs? They've got kids, so they clearly weren't Backwaxing all the time, and neither of them look like they could fill a D cup:
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| Anvil Wives: Have They Been Doin' the Butter-Bust Jerky? |
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| Solid fashion choices compared to the Sabotage cover |
*I was extremely annoyed that the Canadian and European versions of Plenty of Power had mutually exclusive bonus tracks.
**What happened to the bawdy sex songs that used to be an Anvil staple? I just realized when writing this post the last overt one was "Mattress Mambo" on Speed of Sound over 20 years ago!
(Should note that the first pic had nothing to do with this post, as it was created 10+ years ago (Robert Culp was still alive!) when I had the time to Photoshop metal into random images. Since it includes Lips, I thought I may as well put it to use.)
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