Anvil: The Story of Anvil

I knew as soon as I heard about it on the radio that I had to see it and my goodness, it was better than I expected.

"Anvil: The Story of Anvil" is a DOCUMENTARY about a Canadian heavy metal rock group by the name of Anvil, consisting of "Lips" on lead vocals and lead guitar, Robb Reiner (that's two 'b's, and yes, it's just a coincidence; for all you Spinal Tap fans out there) on drums, and another two on guitars - the line-up of which keeps changing.

Reiner and Lips have been Anvil since the 1970s, and in the 1980s they played a huge tour alongside the likes of Metallica and Bon Jovi, who went on to achieve high critical acclaim and make platinum-selling records. This wasn't the case for Anvil, and pretty much as soon as the tour finished, Reiner and Lips had to get minimum-wage manual jobs. Near to the beginning of the film you see Lips working for a catering company for schools.

Since that tour though, Anvil has kept rocking. They are currently working on their fourteenth album, but they have had to remortgage homes and go through hell to do this; to follow their dream.

The reason why it seems like I'm doing a film review for a music blog is because this documentary is so important to music. It tells of the corruption in the industry, the heartache musicians have to face; how the vast majority of musicians don't make it and get screwed over.

I have to admit, heavy metal is one of the few music genres I am not too keen on, but, I must say, their song "Metal on Metal" is pretty catchy.

This film has just stopped being screened in cinemas (movie theatres for people living across the pond from I) and I've just looked, it hasn't been released on DVD yet, but I am sure that when it does it's going to be a bestseller.

This is a must-see film for any music lover.