Anvil – ‘Impact Is Imminent’ (AFM Records)

By Jim Rowland

Back in 2020, Canadian metal legends Anvil released ‘Legal At Last’, one of their strongest albums in a while, but the onset of the pandemic meant they couldn’t complete the tour to promote it. So, like a lot of bands unable to tour, they forged ahead with writing and recording another one, and the result is the band’s 19^th studio album, ‘Impact Is Imminent’.

I remember that 2020 tour well, as Anvil were in the middle of quite an extensive ÜK run as the dark cloud of Covid descended. I was due to see them in London at the end of the tour, and also attend an anniversary event for the ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’ film. At the time it seemed that Anvil were the last band standing as gigs and tours were being cancelled by the minute, and they made it as far as Swindon, literally a few days before the London gig, when they finally had to admit defeat and head home as the ÜK entered shut down. So ‘Impact Is Imminent’ is the first we’ve heard from Anvil since then, and like ‘Legal At Last’, it’s a very decent album indeed.

It’s a case of impact is immediate with the explosive opener ‘Take A Lesson’, a huge sounding belter, swamped in Lips’ trademark distinctive guitar, with a big anthemic chorus to match. ‘Ghost Shadow’ and ‘Bad Side Of Town’ are quality slices of old school Anvil speed metal very much in the vein of the band’s early albums, whilst ‘Another Gun Fight’ takes the slower, doomy direction of the likes of ‘Forged In Fire’ or ‘This Is Thirteen’. ‘Fire Rain’ is a highlight for me, with a quite superb simple classic heavy metal riff, with the epic sounding ‘Lockdown’ (no prizes for guessing what that one’s about) following a similar path.

‘Wizard’s Wand’ is another very strong song with a catchy, heavy shuffle feel, and ‘Shockwave’ offers some real groove and nice Rob Reiner cowbell work on the drums. Of course it wouldn’t be a modern Anvil album without one or two left field moments, with the jazzy instrumental ‘Teabag’ showcasing the rhythmic talents of both Reiner and relatively new boy bassist Chris Robertson loosely along the lines of ‘Swing Thing’. The belting closing track ‘Gomez’ does a similar thing in a Latin jazzy direction, again with great bass work and heavy guitar, and some superb brass that actually conjures up images of the original ‘Batman’ theme for me, which is no bad thing at all. Totally fun, and totally Anvil.

‘Impact Is Imminent’ is business as usual for Anvil, and another quality addition to their catalogue, with quite possibly the best artwork of that entire catalogue. The impact of another Anvil tour must surely be imminent too, and this time they should be able to complete the tour. True to their heavy metal roots, and true to their heavy metal fans, Anvil just keep on poundin’.

‘Impact Is Imminent’ is released tomorrow (Friday 20 May). You can get your copy HERE.

Anvil tour the ÜK and Ireland in October:

www.facebook.com/anvilmetal/