Album Review: Anvil - Legal At Last
Reviewed by Neil Brannagan-Fuller
Anvil have always been one of those background bands for me, they seem to of been around forever (40 years apparently) but I’ve always mentally pigeon holed them as a Canadian answer to NWOBHM, light power metal at best, Spinal Tap at worst. That said, I knew they had a good following, despite having a bit of an underdog status and I was interested to check out the new album ‘Legal At Last’.
Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the album title and associated cover art is celebrating the legalisation of weed in Canada, the title track kicks off the album, and I guess the Anvil boys are happy about legalisation. The song is pretty catchy with a bit of pop punk undertone that continues into the next track ‘Nabbed in Nebraska’. I've no idea what the story is here, but I’m guessing that the Anvil crew got some hassle in the States whilst on the road!
Next up is about another sort of chemical imbalance, not caused by taking a hit from the Anvil bong, but from the pollutants spewed out by industry into the atmosphere. 'Chemtrails’ calls out the mysterious unexplained lung cancer of people who have never smoked, via the power of riffs!
Mixing some ‘Gasoline’ into the track list, moves Anvil into a darker vein, with a thrashier undertone that takes it lead from the constant grabs for the worlds oil and fossil fuel resources. Changing tact once again, we jump in the hot tub time machine and head back to the 80’s for some rock and roll excess, from a time of big hair and chicks on the strip with ‘I’m Alive’.
The next track, ‘Talking To The Wall’ takes a fair kick at the world leaders and their lack of care for anything but themselves (ironic really as one of those world leaders made it ‘Legal At Last'!) and ‘Glass House’ slams the lack of privacy caused by ever increasing CCTV.
Pulling on their inner Ozzy, the downtuned bass lines of ‘Plastic In Paradise’ returns to the environmental theme, and the litter we spew into the oceans and land fills. ‘Bottom Line’ kicks the tempo back up with a speed metal vibe, with some of the best drumming on the album, getting a really good chugging beat moving the track along, this continues into ‘Food For the Vulture’ with its W.A.S.P. Like buzzing guitars.
The final proper track ‘Said and Done’ returns to the doomier feel and finished the album off nicely... Except there’s more, a bonus track ‘No Time’ which returns to the punky feel of the first couple of tracks!
So at the end of the album, I’m left with slightly mixed feelings about this one, the band can play for sure, there’s plenty of riffs and tempo. But it’s also a bit eclectic, a bit immature in lyrical content at times, and I’m not really sure what Anvil sound like, as they seem to of picked up so many influences over the decades that their sound is the sum of those influences. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, as everything they do play is great fun, headbanging inducing and as metal as you can get, in fact so much so that I’ve gone out and brought a ticket for their upcoming tour, and honestly that’s what an album should make you want to do right?
Anvil release 'Legal At Last' vis AFM Records on February 14th.
