Artist

Anvil

Toronto, Canada • Formed 1978

Anvil is a music group from Toronto, Canada, active since 1978. Their discography on Gatefold includes 16 records.

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Albums tracked

In collections

1978

Since

Biography

There is more than one artist using the name Anvil: 1) Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band who has influenced many musical groups including Slayer and Metallica. The band's history is chronicled in the 2009 documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil. 2) Anvil is a1970s German heavy prog psych band. --==-- 1) - The roots of Anvil began in April 1973 in Toronto, when high school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner began playing music together.

The Arc of Anvil

The pivots — what forced Anvil to reinvent.

The Tsangarides Peak
Working with Chris Tsangarides for the Attic Records run gave them a massive, polished crunch that rivaled anything coming out of the UK. Reiner’s drumming became the blueprint for the speed metal movement, specifically on the title track of Metal on Metal where the precision was terrifying. These sessions defined their sound before the industry moved on to younger, faster bands in the Bay Area. You hear it in the perfect separation of the guitars and the sheer confidence of a band that thought they were about to be the biggest thing on the planet.
The Indie Wilderness
Losing their major distribution sent them into a spiral of revolving bassists and small-time labels like Massacre and Hypnotic. Without a budget or a steady lineup, the records became leaner and more aggressive, leaning into a thrashier sound on albums like Plugged in Permanent. Lips took over the heavy lifting while Reiner remained the only constant, keeping the pulse of the band alive in the face of total commercial indifference. It was a decade of playing half-empty clubs and selling merch out of a van just to fund the next session.
The Cinematic Resurrection
The release of the documentary forced a return to the big room, reuniting them with Tsangarides for This Is Thirteen to reclaim their legacy. The production shifted back to that classic, heavy-midrange stomp, shedding the frantic indie-era desperation for something more calculated and traditional. It wasn't a reinvention as much as a stubborn doubling down on the style they helped invent in '82. They finally got the festival slots they deserved, but the music stayed rooted in the same stubborn, power-trio foundations they started with in the basement.

Influences

Deep Purple — Lips has frequently cited Ritchie Blackmore as the reason he picked up a Stratocaster, specifically for the aggressive phrasing. You hear the Purple influence in the driving, repetitive riffs and the high-register vocal theatrics. It’s the foundational DNA for their faster tempos.
Ted Nugent — The band’s early songwriting and Lips' stage persona were heavily informed by the high-output, feedback-heavy style of the Amboy Dukes era and Nugent's solo work. The track 'School Love' is basically a love letter to that Detroit guitar crunch. It gave them that greasy, hard-rock edge before they fully pivoted into metal.
Grand Funk Railroad — Robb Reiner’s heavy-handed, grooving drum style was modeled after Don Brewer, a fact he’s confirmed in multiple technical interviews. The massive, cavernous drum sound on the early records comes straight from the Grand Funk playbook. They took that power-trio swing and just sped it up until it broke.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Lips specifically uses the Hendrix-inspired vibrato bar and feedback manipulation during his live solos, even going as far as to play the guitar with a vibrator as a nod to Hendrix's theatrics. The psychedelic, wandering guitar noise on the longer tracks is a direct descendant of the Band of Gypsys era. It’s the blues-rock core hidden under the leather.
Black Sabbath — The heavy, doom-laden intervals in songs like 'Forged in Fire' are pure Iommi worship. Anvil took the leaden weight of Sabbath and fused it with the speed of the burgeoning metal scene. Without that Birmingham sludge, Anvil would have just been another power-pop band from Ontario.