By Lisa Burke
June 1st 2016, The Whisky-A-Go-Go, West Hollywood CA: Last week on my usual adventures in metal I spent three nights at the Whisky-A-Go-Go, the first of which happened to be for the latest Anvil tour in promotion of their 16th LP ‘Anvil Is Anvil’, featuring touring support acts Night Demon, Unleash The Archers and Graveshadow.
Even though Sacramento-based female-fronted symphonic/gothic metal band Graveshadow were the opening act on this touring package, the order of bands for this show was inexplicably switched, with Graveshadow taking the stage at 6:30, actually even before doors to the public opened at 7. I missed their set but based on what I’ve heard from other bands and crew members on this tour, this is a band worth checking out, for fans of Nightwish and the like.
I did happen to catch one of the local pay-to-play acts Hazard on this evening as well, who are worthy of a mention and gave a decent performance that was styled along the lines of a junior version of Municipal Waste. They were very bass heavy which was not a downfall and really with some outside the box drumming, a little confidence boost on the vocals, and some more energy into it, these guys could have a solid ground to build upon.
Moving on to the first Canadian band of the night, female-fronted Unleash The Archers released their mix of power metal with melodic heavy metal, much in the way of Doro-meets-Kamelot with a splash of Dragonforce. The singer has a decent range for sure, and I preferred the more speedy and extreme songs because the guitar became more original and her vocals stayed on pitch through the difficult switch-ups. There were moments where her vocal range would get too sharp and high-pitched for my taste, but that said, vocalist Brittany Slayes definitely commands the stage and her black gauntlets and epaulettes enhanced the melodic power metal mood. They were also lacking a bass player due to a last minute line up change and visa issue, but at least gave an apology on the absence. It wasn’t too tragic without, but the highs became higher, although power metal can get away with that acceptably. All things considered, I found the drumming decent, vocals interesting, despite lack of originality in lyrics, and the guitars were the most unique aspect of the band although not particularly unexpected.
Next up was Ventura’s heavy metal power trio Night Demon, whose unmistakable yet very unique style had the ambition to rock down the roof of the Whisky. Along with their original tunes and fan favorites including ‘The Chalice’ where their masked reaper demon mascot appears on stage to frighten away the under aged metal heads with fun antics, they also have a knack for turning unusual cover songs into their own. The favorite of these was their rendition of ‘Radar Love’ by Golden Earring which has also been covered by White Lion in the past. The down-to-earth yet charismatic styled vocals of Jarvis Leatherby, the guitar tones, and light-a-fire-under-your-ass drumming are quite the enhancement to previous versions of that song, enough to get a mosh pit involved in what is otherwise a laid-back rock n’ roll song. I mean, yes the mosh pit may have been pretty intoxicated but the fact that anyone drunk or not can find a way to mosh to that song means the band took it way past the next level and successfully demonized it in a customized way. The talent is abound here and the band travels with their own specific lighting design that appears a simple concept, yet fits the hidden complex layers of the band nicely. All three members seem to work fluidly together on stage and if you haven’t seen them in action live, you are missing out for sure. The excitement continues for them because the next stop for these guys is Europe which is always a giant climb up the ladder for any American band.
Finally, it was time for Canada’s Anvil, one of the most predictable and unpredictable bands around. With their classic power speed metal, dirty thrashy overtones, and vocalized pre-song idiocies such as ‘one two, one two, fuck you’ etcetera, they definitely carry a certain undeniable stigmata. Basically, these guys have been around the block for over 35 years by now and they are still remaining pretty stagnant which happens to be part of their charm. With the cheesy, obvious ‘hit you over the head’ intros into songs like ‘666’, ‘On Fire’, ‘This Is Thirteen’, and then finally everyone’s favorite ‘Metal On Metal’, there is no denying consistency here. If you think about it, an anvil is what kept falling on cartoon characters’ heads back in the days of Looney Tunes, and therefore this is quite the appropriate title for a ‘hit you over the head’ band of knuckleheads. They really belong on TV as a satire band because they are extremely comparable to Spinal Tap and they dug their own grave there, and with the 2008 release of the ‘Anvil! The Story Of Anvil’ documentary you almost feel sorry for them until you see Steve “Lips” Kudlow in his Canada leaf symbol t-shirt pull a dildo out of his pocket and play a pretty great guitar solo with it with absolutely no shame and tons of originality. I’ve never seen anyone else do this trick and really why would they, yet credit must be given where credit is due. They are definitely entertaining from the bass player’s exaggerated swinging motions, silly faces and jumps, to the drummer’s slightly above average playing, to the ridiculous guitar hot faces and dildo slaps. The joke that they influenced people and then died out to a soft purr is actually what keeps them alive today, and although I can’t say they were my favorite band of the week, they definitely entertained. The moral of the story, is metal is metal and exactly what you make of it. If you make it a funny joke then that is what it will be, and if you make it a way of life it will probably stay around till the end of time.
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Anvil remaining U.S. tour dates:
6/09 – Dallas TX @ Gas Monkey Live
6/10 – San Angelo TX @ Dead Horse
6/11 – Austin TX @ Cowboy Harley Davidson
6/12 – New Orleans LA @ Southport Music Hall
6/15 – Atlanta GA @ The Earl
6/16 – Newport KY @ Southgate House
6/17 – Indianapolis IN @ 5th Quarter
6/18 – Cleveland OH @ The Foundry
6/19 – Philadelphia PA @ Trocadero