HEAVY METAL merchants always seem to attract derision. There's something about their uniformly skinny, long-haired appearance and their often inane or indecipherable lyrics that sets up metal acts as ripe for satire. Then there is the shadow of This Is Spinal Tap, which has loomed over them for 25 years, making it even harder to take them seriously.
By coincidence, the drummer and co-founder of Toronto band Anvil is named Robb Reiner, which is suspiciously close to the name of Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner. That may prompt an initial misassumption that Anvil! The Story of Anvilis a mockumentary, a view supported by the facts that they have diehard fans known as Cut Loose and Mad Dog, and that the band's first composition, Thumb Hang,was inspired by the Spanish Inquisition.
It's all true, though, and as Sacha Gervasi's entertaining documentary proceeds at a breezy pace, harsher truths are revealed about Anvil, formed by Reiner and vocalist-guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow when they were 14. They went on to be acclaimed "demi- gods of Canadian metal" with their influential 1984 album, Metal Is Metal, and the film features testimonials from metal gurus Slash, Lemmy and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
It’s been downhill all the way since Anvil’s heyday, but, despite the hard knocks and disillusionments, Lips and Reiner never gave up. The movie doesn’t shy away from the economic realities of their lives, following Lips as he works as a delivery driver and in a brief, hopeless stint at telemarketing, and it candidly addresses the ridiculous organisational mishaps that mara European tour that promised much more than it delivered.
Yet their dreams of rock stardom persist, and Lips and Reiner still clearly exult in the joy of performance and audience appreciation. Despite being ripped off by concert promoters and record companies, they are undaunted as they set about recording their 13th album, imaginatively titled This Is Thirteen.
Gervasi’s sympathetic but unflinching documentary may be one of cinema’s most unlikely tributes to the indomitable nature of the human spirit. Lips and Reiner somehow remain proud and philosophical and ever hopeful after all these years. Their sheer tenacity is admirable.
