{"id":12392,"date":"2013-05-24T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T00:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=12392"},"modified":"2013-06-12T04:29:11","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T04:29:11","slug":"album-review-anvil-hope-in-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-anvil-hope-in-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"ANVIL – Hope In Hell (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANVIL
Hope In Hell<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSteamhammer (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 4\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The Anvil machine marches on. Hope In Hell<\/em> is the 15th studio album by these Canadian headbangers; the band is seemingly on a revival trip after the success of the 2008 documentary Anvil: The Story Of Anvil<\/em>, although record sales would suggest that the interest is waning rapidly. Hard to believe that these rock \u2019n\u2019 roll stalwarts were once higher on the bill than Metallica and Slayer<\/a>, but it has to be admired how Anvil have stuck to their guns.<\/p>\n

Steve \u201cLips\u201d Kudlow (vocals \/ guitar) and Robb Reiner (drums) may not be the Lennon and McCartney of metal \u2013 if anything they\u2019ve become the Chuckle Brothers of their trade \u2013 but you know exactly what you\u2019re getting with an Anvil opus even before you\u2019ve slapped it on the turntable. And maybe it\u2019s that simplicity and straight down the line attitude that endears me to them, but there are only so many times I can sympathise.<\/p>\n

Hope In Hell<\/em> is the first Anvil record to feature former Cities bassist Sal Italiano who replaces long-standing member Glenn Five, but Lips and Reiner are very much like Axl Rose (Guns N\u2019 Roses) and Dave Mustaine (Megadeth<\/a>) in that they\u2019ll forever remain embedded in Anvil lore while others come and go.<\/p>\n

And so to the record. Well, it\u2019s another standard Anvil affair of course, bolstered by Bob Marlette\u2019s production. Opening track is the plodding title track, featuring a catchy riff and sturdy drum sound \u2013 Lips\u2019 vocals are still stuck in that mid-80s style, but for the most part his guitar enables the track to succeed as a mid-paced stomper, despite the rather na\u00efve lyrics.<\/p>\n

\u2018Eat Your Words\u2019 however is a completely different kettle of metal, a raging headbanger that goes straight for the throat with its thrashy structure and basic chorus. It\u2019s one of my favourite tracks on the record despite the insufferable lyrics.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Anvil just doesn\u2019t have the quality to produce top notch metal in quantity. \u2018Through With You\u2019 is simply a more metallic \u2018Smoke On The Water\u2019 (Deep Purple) with its main riff, but lyrically it really is childish in its attempts at angst as Lips barks \u201cSee you next Tuesday, what I say to you\u201d<\/em> over a mediocre chug.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Anvil have become a bit of a parody, and tracks such as \u2018The Fight Is Never Won\u2019 and \u2018Pay The Toll\u2019 just lack the cutting edge to be taken seriously as strong metal tracks. It seems that through the comedy and tragedy of the documentary, Lips and Reiner have become those vulnerable characters instead of attempting to churn out something more serious. I\u2019m guessing the duo doesn\u2019t see the cracks in their own masks, but the paint has peeled to the extent of revealing incredibly worn frowns resulting in archetype metal that sounds frighteningly dated.<\/p>\n

\u2018Flying\u2019, \u2018Call Of Duty\u2019 and the atrociously titled \u2018Badass Rock \u2019N\u2019 Roll\u2019 are metal-by-numbers songs that wouldn\u2019t even make the grade in 1985, let alone now. Meanwhile, album closer, with its Mot\u00f6rhead\u2013styled brashness, almost saves the day until Lips\u2019 awful vocal performance and terrible lyrics.<\/p>\n

One only has to revert back to track eight, aptly titled \u2018Time Shows No Mercy\u2019, to expose the frailties behind the Anvil machine. I\u2019ve no doubt these guys will march on through the turmoil, but with sales of less than 1,000 in the first week of release in the US, there\u2019s suggestion Anvil just haven\u2019t got a hope in hell. <\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANVILHope In Hell Steamhammer (2013)Rating: 4\/10 The Anvil machine marches on. Hope In Hell is the 15th studio album by these Canadian headbangers; the band is seemingly on a revival trip after the success of the 2008 documentary Anvil: The Story Of Anvil, although record sales would suggest that the interest is waning rapidly. Hard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,601],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-anvil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12392"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12401,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12392\/revisions\/12401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}