Axe vs Kick Axe vs Alcatrazz vs Autograph vs Avalanche vs Anvil Bitch vs Angel Witch

Which one of these '80s metal bands that I always used to confuse with Anvil before Anvil finally got famous was best? Which was worst? Were any of them any good at all? The world wants to know. Or at least I do.

Throw in Armored Saint too, if you want. (But probably not Arrogance; pretty sure they were too early to count.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Artillery-band-logo.jpg

best album cover too:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e9/Terror_Squad.jpg

plus, on this album, chuck, they cover "razamanaz":

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/By_Inheritance.jpg

science ape future looks promising

Axe was southern rock/pop metal. You might think that sounds like a great combination but it wound
up a bit lighter and less catchy than Blackfoot. Average with occasional sparks of good to greatness.

Alcatrazz -- vehicle for hot shit axemen providing foils for singer Graham Bonnet. Between Malmsteen and Steve Vai, slight differences not particularly cost effective. Not like Anvil at all. Throw in between Whitesnake and later period Rainbow, who Bonnet fronted too, much to interesting fights. Alcatrazz watned to have a song like "Can't Happen Here," but didn't.

Never cared about Angelwitch, distinguished now by mainly having as drummer, the brother of the drummer for the much more successful NWOBHM band, Girlschool.

The missing link (and a decent Swedish metal band) - AXE WITCH

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/4/3/9/14391.jpg

No idea, but Kick Axe did change their name to Spectre General for inclusion on the Transformers soundtrack.

From the LATimes.

But "Anvil"? When the film debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, they couldn't get arrested, so the filmmakers and the band initially released it themselves (with the key help of Richard Abramowitz's distribution company, Abramorama). Now look at them.

On Monday, Anvil was featured on ABC's "Nightline." On Tuesday the official DVD of their movie was released and they made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" where Conan O'Brien raved about the film. Wednesday they made their movie debut on the set of fan and director Michel Gondry's big-budget flick "The Green Hornet," filming a cameo where they (literally) explode playing in a rock club. Thursday night they appeared at a screening/Q&A at the WGA Theatre in Beverly Hills moderated by Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian and "hosted" by such academy members as Gondry, Tilda Swinton and Catherine Keener (who hosted a party for them as well earlier in the week). Now on Friday, their little-movie-that-could should be in most Academy voters' mailboxes.

Perhaps the drive to get the film out now to every Oscar voter is partially due to the film's overwhelming critical support. It currently stands at 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, easily of the highest ratings of the year.

VH1, which aired the film over the summer, paid for the manufacturing and shipping of the specially made screeners for the Academy and other key awards groups. The network could not send out the commercial DVD because Academy rules are very strict about packaging on screeners sent to their membership, and all contenders must produce special versions with no frills if they want to get them to the voters. The publicity firm 42West is working on the awards campaign, which is being shepherded in part by Cynthia Swartz, a veteran of the golden years at Oscar-savvy Miramax.

So how did this all start?

Filmmaker Sacha Gervasi worked with Anvil when he was 16, lost touch and then reconnected with the guys, Lips and Robb Reiner (not that Rob Reiner) 20 years later. That's when he first saw the possibilities for a documentary chronicling the re-emergence of the once-promising aging heavy metal band and their faded dream of still making it big. He thinks the idea of getting the movie screener to the Academy is just another notch on the list of Anvil dream To Do list.

"Anvil has always been a wild card as a band and now, a movie. We have gotten such amazing support from people like (Times critic) Kenny Turan and (New Yorker critic) Anthony Lane and from so many filmmakers," he told me Thursday. "Our point I think is just to get the movie out to as many people as possible. Obviously we're a wild card. The Anvil story is about being the underdog."

The idea of Kenny Turan liking Anvil -- the band -- rather than the idea of the movie is hysterical.
Which illustrates Anvil's dilemma. After the excitement of the movie wears off, and the money from the 'Green Hornet' cameo, and all the invitations to play events attended by people who will never buy Anvil CDs -- like Turan, other middle-aged movie critics, people who listen to NPR and watch PBS, part of the aged boomer audience for Michael Moore documentaries, what do you do? There wasn't one damn Anvil CD in the record store I went to yesterday, despite the fact they're semi-regularly in the entertainment news as a result of the doc -- which I saw and liked.

yeah, it doesn't really seem sustainable for them. still, better than not having had the movie hype at all.

As of last week, I'm pretty sure their (pretty good) new album hadn't charted in the Billboard 200; thought it might at least beat their previous high of #191 for 1997's Strength of Steel, but now even that looks unlikely. Maybe they'll sell some merch on tour ("Anvil Experience," it's being called -- movie then a live set); if nothing else, it's hard to think they'll be worse off than they were before. But yeah, they'll be forgotten as soon as the movie runs its course. And what new audience they get is unlikely to be mainly hard rock fans.

Kind of curious about what's going on with their back catalogue now, too. I'm sure I could find out if I poked around, but are any of the '80s albums in print? I'm assuming not. How hard are they to track down used? Have their prices skyrocketed? Didn't see any at the Austin Record Convention over the weekend (though then again, it's also not like I was looking all that hard for them). Pretty sure I passed up an old LP for a couple bucks in Queens back in January, before all the movie hype kicked in; doubt I'll be seeing that again for a while.

Looks like Metal On Metal is going for $9 (+ postage) and up as an import CD on amazon, fwiw, though - not awful, so maybe I'm wrong:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00007M01G/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Anvil are kind of like that guy, Ben Hamper, in Michael Moore's Roger & Me. He was fired, like everyone else, got in the movie -- was remembered for singing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and his cause was taken up. Got a book out of it, some writing gigs, didn't solve the underlying problem because the new audience has no real interest in solving it, just getting some jazz out of it as repackaged entertainment.

I used to have a bunch of Anvil Cds. Only one left, I think, Metal on Metal.

Kick Axe was a great band for a while in the early to mid-80s, traditional heavy metal with a real knack for hooks without sacrificing any heaviness. With Spencer Proffer they made tremendous use of three and four part vocal harmonies and put out a couple of slick records in 84-85, Vices being the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dis39LcsbCU

They were actually my first metal concert, in January 1985!

I passed up Anvil records in the used bin for twenty years. Then I saw the film and bought a nice LP of Metal on Metal off ebay for $10. I dj it fairly regularly now. I think the best track on it is the instrumental "March of the Crabs" which I assume is based on a real life experience...

Metal on Metal and Forged in Fire are classics, but their big comeback in 1987 really backfired. They sounded outdated while the rest of metal was exploding creatively, but that didn't keep Much Music from playing "Mad Dog" over and over and over...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD8P7aNGbt8

That's pretty likable, actually (more the video than the song).

Who knew they had fast motion or b&w video back in '87?

People who watched football games.