About Anvil

Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in Toronto in 1978. The band currently consists of founding members guitarist/vocalist Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, along with bassist Chris Robertson who joined in 2014. As of 2024, the band has released twenty studio albums; they have been cited as having influenced many notable heavy metal groups including Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, and Metallica.

Reviewers described Anvil as a pioneering heavy metal band which was popular in the 1980s but then faded into obscurity in the 1990s, while refusing to stop playing, recording, and gigging. Anvil's antics on and off stage, the setbacks they suffered, and their determination to keep going have been compared to the fictional band Spinal Tap.

Anvil began in April 1973 in a suburb of Toronto, when high school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner began playing music together. They met through a friend, guitarist and neighbor Marty Hoffman, but "musical differences" caused his departure after their first show. In 1978, the first full line-up of the band included Kudlow , Reiner , Dave "Squirrely" Allison , and Ian "Dix" Dickson . At that point, the band was called Lips.

In 1981, the band released an independent album called Hard 'N' Heavy. Shortly after that they were signed by Attic Records and changed their name to Anvil. Their independent album was rereleased by Attic as their debut album for the company. After its release, British rock musician Lemmy asked Kudlow to play guitar for Motörhead, to replace "Fast" Eddie Clarke, but Kudlow declined.

By 1983, Aerosmith manager David Krebs and assistant Paul O'Neill had signed a managing contract with Anvil and convinced Attic to release the band from its contract, so the band could sign with a major label. However, after initial interest, Krebs eventually stopped returning phone calls and did not get the band a major label recording contract; he released the band in mid-1986.

In 1987 the band was signed with American label Metal Blade Records by William Howell, a fan who became a DJ with KNAC radio. The band released three records with Metal Blade, starting with Strength of Steel, which was the group's most commercially successful record in the United States; it peaked at No. 191 on the Billboard 200.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Anvil", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.