ANVIL – New Studio Album ‘ANVIL IS ANVIL’ released Feb 26th on SPV + tour dates

Seminal Canadian Heavy Metallers Anvil are set to release their rousing, fist-pumping new studio album ‘Anvil Is Anvil’ on Steamhammer / SPV on February 26^thas a Digipak CD, (containing a bonus track and poster), as a high class double gatefold clear vinyl LP (with CD in paper sleeve), plus download. Coinciding with release, Anvil will hit the road as Special Guests on Dirkschneider’s entire European tour, calling in to the UK to play the following live dates:-

13^thApril       MANCHESTER Academy
14^thApril       NEWCASTLE Riverside
15^thApril       SHEFFIELD The Corporation
16^thApril       BUCKLEY Tivoli
17^thApril       NORWICH Waterfront
18^thApril       LONDON 02 Islington Academy

‘Anvil is Anvil’, is an unambiguous, uncompromising, unmistakably Anvil long player, infused throughout with a fresh, sparkling, self-confident vitality, reflecting both the band’s philosophy of life and new-found drive. “We’re sometimes criticised for never changing,” guitarist and vocalist Lips explains. “But why should we change something we’re renowned for? Isn’t it much more important to stay faithful to yourself? To do what you do best? The idea behind our latest album is: we are what we are, and that’s how it’s going to stay!”

‘Anvil is Anvil’ presents guitarist / vocalist Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow, drummer Robb Reiner and their new bassist Chris Robertson in a thoroughly magic metal moment. Lips: “Time will tell whether this album is the absolute pinnacle of our career. But I would already refer to it as ‘gaining the momentum’. The year 2013 was a perfect new start for Anvil. We were touring, went on to write the new material, toured again and returned to compose some more. During that time, the new line-up gelled into a real unit. The arrival of Chris was just as significant for us as the film back in 2008. He helped me enormously with my vocal lines, which is why my voice sounds better than ever on stage and also in the studio.”

The same could be said of the new material. ‘Anvil is Anvil’ sounds all of one piece and presents the band’s amazing diversity, combined with their conscious loyalty to the compositional DNA of their own classics. ‘Die For A Lie’ for example sounds like a contemporary version of ‘Jackhammer’ and the stomping ‘Runaway Train’ features the same directives as ‘Smoking Green’, only based on Kudlow’s present day maturity. “I practically graduated from the Bob Marlette University,” the Anvil front man praises the American producer with whom the band recorded their 2011 release, ‘Juggernaut Of Justice’ and 2013’s ‘Hope In Hell’. “Bob showed me how to write songs which really mean something. So when I started to compose this time around, I was perfectly groomed.”

The band elected to work with producer Martin ‘Mattes’ Pfeifer (U.D.O.) on ‘Anvil Is Anvil’ at the at the Redhead 4 Studios in Pulheim near Cologne, Germany. For Lips, whose family is Jewish, as is drummer Robb Reiner’s, it was a special moment to work with a German producer in a German studio. “There’s a song on ‘Anvil is Anvil’ that’s called ‘Forgive Don´t Forget’, which says everything about our attitude. Nobody is guilty of anything that happened before their time, especially since Germany has critically examined and come to terms with its own past. Anvil have always been welcome in Germany, even during difficult phases. When we think of Germany, we think of friends, not war criminals.” Lips takes a clear political stance with songs such as ‘Gun Control’ and ‘Die For A Lie’, which denounces the ambiguous role of the church; “Religion is frequently used to involve people in military conflict. Hate in the name of God – that’s just wrong!”

Yet ‘Anvil is Anvil’ not only touches on sensitive issues but also documents the band’s lust for life, their dynamic musical style and their absolute down-to-earthiness. When Lips delivers the line “Ace of Spades and the joker is wild” on ‘It´s Your Move’ with a surprisingly realistic Motörhead timbre, it proves his sense of humour and is in homage at the same time (“close friends with Lemmy since 1981, he is definitely part of the family”). And when Anvil invite their fans to the studio to join the choir on ‘Daggers And Rum’, it only shows the closeness between the musicians and their fans; “We’ve never recorded a pirate metal shanty such as ‘Daggers & Rum’ before. I’m sure this number will go down well on the upcoming tour.”

Drummer Robb Reiner, who created the ‘Anvil Is Anvil’ cover art, recalls that “This time around, it was suggested I paint the cover art for the release by brother Lips, after I had come up with the concept and shown him study sketches drawn out. The simple straight to the point composition was much fun to render on canvas in oil. I spent about 6 weeks completing it.”