When it comes to the most influential bands in the history of heavy metal, authorities on the subject regularly vote Anvil among the top positions. The group from Toronto, Canada, with its two masterminds, Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and Robb Reiner, and bassist Chris Robertson, not only looks back at an impressive career with countless highlights – as well as a number of well-documented difficulties – but has also had a lasting influence on lots of internationally renowned musicians, from Metallica to Slayer and beyond. Their latest studio album is aptly entitled ‘One And Only’: Anvil are and will always be one of a kind and are continuing to shape the contemporary metal scene just as impressively as they did at the beginning of their career. How they achieve this? Thanks to their straightforward metal fuelled by cutting riffs and catchy hooks, which the musicians continue to celebrate with admirable effortlessness and great passion. “We’re more like our old selves than we’ve been in years,” comments frontman Lips Kudlow on the new album, adding: “We’ve dropped all our more modern aspects, particularly the 90s version of Anvil. No sexual topics and no thrash speed songs like they featured on past albums.” ‘One And Only’, the band’s 20th (!) studio recording to date, will be available on AFM fromJune 28th. The first single/video ‘Feed Your Fantasy’ has been out since 5 April 2024, with the title track ‘Truth is Dying’ to follow as second lead single on May 10th
So it’s fair to say that what we have here is a quintessential Anvil album. Chris Robertson and drummer Robb Reiner keep the up the pace with their usual confidence, providing the perfect rhythm section for guitarist/vocalist Lips. Could there be a more characteristic Anvil song than the breezy ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’? Highly unlikely. Will ‘Fighting For Your Rights’ and ‘Blind Rage’ put as much strain on your neck muscles as the great Anvil classics from the glorious eighties? You bet they will! At the same time, ‘One And Only’ wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t hold a number of little surprises in store for the band’s fans, as usual: The mid-tempo ‘Feed Your Fantasy’ plus video clip have turned into a shuffle-style number that is pretty unusual for Anvil, while ‘Heartbroken’ with its slow groove has a doomy flair that occasionally brings to mind Black Sabbath.
The lyrics on ‘One And Only’ also provide first-rate Anvil entertainment: Lips is considered to be one of the most creative and interesting storytellers of the metal genre, with a very precise choice of words that get straight to the point and – as on ‘Condemned Liberty’ and ‘Fight For Your Rights’ – sometimes touch sensitive issues. He says: “‘Condemned Liberty’ is about losing all our freedoms due to the abuse of our rights, like freedom of speech and expression. And ‘Fight For Your Rights’ is about the music business ripping off musicians.” Lips knows what he’s talking about: Anvil have experienced the tough and frequently merciless side of the music industry on a number of occasions, although they’ve never lost their idealism, motivation and energy.
Like its four predecessors, ‘One And Only’ was produced by Martin ‘Mattes’ Pfeiffer (U.D.O., among others) and Jörg Uken at his Soundlodge studio. As far as Lips is concerned, Pfeiffer and Uken are “... our one and only choice. As usual, Mattes and Jörg did a great job in choosing our best playing and making sure it has top notch sound. Great guys who understand the band and know what suits us best.”
