Anvil – Legal At Last
Label: AFM Records
Release date: 14th February, 2020
Website: https://www.facebook.com/anvilmetal
Canadian metal institution Anvil puts out their eighteenth (!) album these days. “Legal At Last“ might not be the first choice for a lover of melodic rock or AOR, for sure, but if you are into heavy metal as well, give it a spin! Being quite awkward – well, or let’s say “special“ – for the most part, the Canadian band comprised of mainman Steve “Lips“ Kudlow (g/v), Robb Reiner (d) and Chris Robertson (b) managed to absolutely stay true to their style and open a few new doors here and there over the last couple of albums. The new one is both, a typical ANVIL record with its stint of imperfection on the one hand but on the other hand, the band never sounded to good, actually! Thanks to producer Martin “Mattes“ Pfeiffer (u.a. U.D.O.), they actually never sounded so pristine. Well, ok…we still talk about ANVIL here, but no comparison whatsoever to what the band did in the 2000s. And this goes with songwriting, too. Some tracks (“Gasoline“ or “When All’s Been Said And Done“) are rather doom-like while others (“I’m Alive“) are reminiscent of MOTÖRHEAD to a certain degree and then there are really melodic metal anthems like “Plastic In Paradise“ or “Glass House“, that include sophisticated lyrics as well.You can sense their type of humor in “Nabbed In Nebraska“. Anvil, to cut it short, either you like them or not! Well, I do!
8/10
Martin Stark
Tracklist:
1. Legal At Last 3:41
2. Nabbed In Nebraska 4:33
3. Chemtrails 4:07
4. Gasoline 4:33
5. I’m Alive 4:28
6. Talking To The Wall 4:05
7. Glass House 3:36
8. Plastic In Paradise 5:14
9. Bottom Line 3:05
10. Food For The Vulture 4:38
11. Said And Done 5:13
12. No Time 3:15
