When Heavy Metal Makes Me Cry.....

My buddy just got me a copy of the most amazing documentary which i have been waiting over a year to watch.

"ANVIL!-The Story Of Anvil."

Simply brilliant, brutally honest, unflinching in its realism. That's all i can say.

Anvil were (are) one of those 80s metal bands i knew the name but never really got into. I knew kids in school that liked them but i think they just liked any band that wasn't Duran Duran at the time.

The band was one of those that came out during the golden age of Metal, when Priest and Maiden ruled and spawned seemingly hundreds of like-minded bands who were all about leather and volume and long frizzy hair with no trace of conditioner. Some of those bands flourished, like Scorpions and Whitesnake. Some just faded without making the REALLY big break, like Raven, Kick Axe, Grim Reaper and Anvil.

The ship had sailed and a couple years later, as Lars Ulrich and Tom Araya point out, you had the rise of the "Big 4"...Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer. And then, that high pitched fantasy-themed"Metal On Metal" style kind of dated itself to make way for the heavier, angrier style of thrash metal.

The documentary nicely sets up the scenario of how this band could have (should have) been bigger but nobody can really pinpoint where it all went wrong. It shows two guys in their 50s who just continue to churn out record after record, tour after tour, make very little money, and run into obstacle after obstacle. Why? Because this is all they wanted to do with their lives.

The thing about this movie that touched me was the realism shown that gets overlooked on Vh1 specials about bands. The constant aggravation and disappointment of playing empty venues and crooked promoters who don't pay. The loss of time spent with family and their combination of tireless support and tiresome worry about when the boys in the band will want to begin a sturdy normal life. It doesn't try to glamourize the job and make the viewer think it's all screaming fans and wild parties.

The harsh reality is it's a lot of time waiting around with nothing to do. It's cold and boring dressing rooms. It's constant moving from place to place with no chance to enjoy the surroundings. It's being stuck in a small space with four other people whom you love dearly but could strangle to death at any moment if they say one more stupid thing. Amazingly, all that and more are shown here with not a single shred of "prepared" feeling you sometimes sense in typical documentaries.

"Anvil!" ultimately gives metal fans and haters alike an inside look at the unwavering drive that possesses the musicians that make it and the fans that support it. There are hundreds of bands like Anvil, who may never quite get that big break or career-spanning documentary, but at least they can take comfort in knowing that their story has now been told, albeit vicariously.