The Story of Anvil

We all have heard the stories of metal bands which make it big. Those make for compelling viewing. We love to see their God-like lifestyle, their constant touring, petty fights. There were many documentaries made on the rich and the famous bands, the Metallicas, Maidens, Megadeths. Amidst all this is a great metal band which most of us never ever heard of. A band which inspired iconic bands like Metallica and Motorhead. A band which used to play along with Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and the like at the start of the 80s. A band which faded out 2 years before Metallica and Slayer made their big impact. The band is Anvil.

The movie directed by a long time 'Anvil' fan Sacha Gervasi, is more of a human story than a rock documentary. It starts off with that super rock concert in Japan in 1984 where Anvil played along with Scorpions, ACDC and a host of other big bands to some big crowds. From there, it cuts back to present day Canada, the home of the band. The band's frontman Steve 'Lips' Kudlow is working for a catering service and drummer Robb Reiner is hard at work in breaking concrete. Hardly the kind of work rock stars are expected to do. Alas, they never made it to rock stardom. Somewhere along the way, they started a downward spiral with bad management(They didn't even have a manager) and cheating by record labels. But Lips and Reiner stuck it together as buddies and kept their hopes alive. They still played at small shows along with the 2 new band members who joined 10 years back. And, as a ray of hope, they receive a mail from a fan who has fixed up concerts for them in Europe. But, the hope soon dies down as they end up playing in
small pubs with 5 to 10 people. They travel in buses, trains. They wait on empty roadsides. Its nothing like the typical world tour that you associate with a band. Many of the pub owners refuse to pay them. The fan(now also the manager) doesn't help things with her inability to communicate properly in english. Its back to the same old boring dayjob for Lips and Reiner again.

Even after so much of disappointments and rejections, they never lose hope. As Lips says after returning from that bad European tour, 'I enjoyed every bit of it although things didn't go well'. Its their passion to make it big atleast once before they die that make them carry on even at that old age. Their families stand by them all through. They decide to record their 13th album 'This is 13' and contact music producer Chris Tsangarides who has worked with Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and also on one of Anvil's previous albums. He agrees to do it for them but money becomes a problem. Lips tries a job as a telemarketeer at one of his fan's firms. But he couldn't adjust to it. Atlast, the family man gets rewarded for being loyal to his family all through. His elder sister pays for the recording. After stormy recording sessions which included fights between Lips and Reiner, they make the record. But the record companies refuse to take it. And in the end, they themselves release it.

And then it comes. History repeating itself after almost 30 years. An invitation to play in a big rockfest in Japan. They are upbeat as they come out of Tokyo airport. As a last twist of fate, they find their concert time to be 11.30 AM. They are shattered thinking that no one's gonna turn up at that time. As they walk from their room to the venue, you also will start praying for the venue to have atleast a 1000 people. Much to the band's surprise, they see a full house waiting in anticipation for Anvil's return. They give it their best. Their hardwork and the long wait for 30 years has found its results. Though they may never reach the league of Metallica or Slayer, their touching story of determination amidst a hell lot of failures will forever inspire us.

Its not about how many records you sell. Its about doing what makes you happy even if it doesn't pay you the dividends that you expect. Its about sticking on with your buddy and with your family even when the times are not that good. Its about giving it your best even if you are playing to a one man audience. Its about the love for Rock N Roll.

your crusader Praveen

'MEGADETHED'

I've always loved his peculiar vocals. I've been inspired and touched by his amazing lyrics. His jaw-breaking solos have took my breath many a time. His band has remained one of my all-time favorites from the time I started listening to heavy metal. So, it was always a great dream to watch the man and his band live atleast once in a lifetime. But that dream is no more. Because, it became a reality this saturday at the palace grounds, Bangalore. Yes, am talking about Dave Mustaine and his band Megadeth which made India headbang to its tunes this weekend. The 'Rock in India' fest was a dream come true for me.

The day started with the metal army from my hometown, Trivandrum, landing here in the morning. We all proceeded to Palace grounds by afternoon. But the crowd outside the grounds were not as big as expected. The security was checking every inch of our body to make sure that concealed cameras and cigarette packets didn't make its way to the venue. We got inside only at the end of the 2nd band Prestorika's performance. We missed the first band 'Casino blues'. Anyway, I was happy that we were there in time for one of my favorite Indian bands, 'Junkyard groove'. This was my first time of watching the guys from Chennai live. I love most of their songs that I listened from their myspace page. Songs like 'its ok' and 'been so long' were lapped up by the small crowd. The vocalist with his drunken antics and able singing stole the show. Lots of people din't care to come near the smaller stage set for the Indian bands as they were waiting near the main stage to be in front by the time Megadeth performs. Next in line was 'Motherjane', the rockers from god's own country and the best in the country, IMHO. They belted out their great numbers from the old 'Insane biography' album as well as the unreleased 'Makhtub' album. We all enjoyed a lot by headbanging from the front row and singing along the lyrics. We also got a copy of the rare 'Insane biography' cd and got it autographed by the band.

We went around for a drink of cola(the only other things available were alcoholic drinks) and also visited the merchandise shops. By the time, we came back Thermal And A Quarter[TAAQ] were on stage. They played crowd favorites like 'Paper puli'. Though I liked their show, it was not as big as I expected. Then came the oldest guys on the Indian rock circuit 'Millennium'. Before the show, I haven't even heard their name. But after their show, I was wondering where these guys were hiding all these days for me to miss them. What I liked most about them was their in your face attitude. It was a power packed show all through with heavy riffing and stage antics like the 'metal army' chanting.

By the time Pentagram started, we were searching for a place near the main stage to watch Megadeth up close. Still, from there, we enjoyed the Pentagram show especially 'Its electric'. Am still wondering why vocalist Vishal Dadlani went behind bollywood music when he had such a great band at hand[obviously, its the money :D]. So, the side shows got over. Though it was supposed to be a side show, almost all the bands performed really well to underline the fact that the future of Indian rock is in safe hands.

We made our way through the crowd waiting impatiently in front of the main stage. About 6 rows from the front, the crowd was so dense that we couldn't move any further. The lights went off and then it blasted on to a sudden assault of heavy metal. 'Machine head' were on stage led by their evergreen front man Rob Flynn. I haven't heard much of them except a few songs from their new album 'Blackening' and the old song 'Davidian'. Still I enjoyed the show and headbanged to their songs. There was some heavy moshing happening right beside us and we had to do lot of expert maneouvers to save us from the assault. Lots of people[many of them with their GFs] were escaping from the front rows to stay free from the moshing and pushing. That paved the way for us to move forward a couple of rows. Rob Flynn said that when they started the band he never ever dreamed even in his wildest dreams that they would ever play in India. He was visibly surprised by the aggressive Indian crowd singing along their lyrics. Their show ended after 8:15.

Now, it was time for what I waited for all these years. The huge drum on stage was replaced with another one, specially for megadeth. The stage backdrop of Machine head was replaced with a huge one reading MEGADETH. The band crew was busy running around setting things up and sound checking. The impatient crowd began chanting 'MEGADETH, MEGADETH'. The huge speakers were playing songs from metal greats like Ozzy, Maiden and Pantera. And then at exactly 8:45 PM, the opening riffs of 'sleepwalker' from the new megadeth album 'United abominations' began streaming in. The crowd let out a huge roar. There he was, standing near the mic with his guitar in his trademark style. The lights went on in full bloom. I couldn't believe my eyes. Mustaine the great was standing before me and singing "No one is safe when I close my eyes, I come to take your life". Yeah, he almost took my life. He looked thinner than what I've seen on video. But the voice was still the same as was the guitaring. Chris Broderick was also great, playing the leads to perfection. As was Shawn Drover, pounding hard behind the drums. The only bad thing was the sound system, from which nothing was audible at first. One had to strain one's ears to hear the guitar leads. There was a slight drizzle right from the time Megadeth were on stage but it disappeared after sometime. The show really picked up with 'Tout Le monde' when the whole crowd sang along the lyrics. This fired up Mustaine and his bunch and the complexion of the show changed from there.

For the next 1 hour and 15 minutes we were treated to a mix of old as well as new favourites from the Megadeth discography. The crowd loved the old ones more, evident from the singing along. Maybe, they were more familiar with the old lyrics. The crowd, though small in number compared to Iron Maiden's show last year, played along well with the band. One such thing I particularly loved was the 'Megadeth, Megadeth' chanting that accompanied the guitar rhythm part in 'symphony of destruction'. During the last song 'Holy Wars', the band suddenly switched to the 'Mechanix' song after the arabic solo. Then again after the song, they switched back to 'Holy wars'. That was one surprising and nice touch to end the concert. It brought back memories of the long standing fued between Metallica and Mustaine, which actually paved the way for the birth of MEGADETH. Was this is a sign of Mustaine 'buying peace' with Metallica or declaring 'Holy war' on them? One can never be sure...

The playlist of Megadeth was as follows[not exactly in the same order]

1.Sleepwalker
2.Wake up dead
3.A Toute le Monde
4.Peace Sells..But whos buying
5.Symphony of Destruction
6.Tornado of souls
7.Trust
8.Burnt Ice
9.Skin o my Teeth
10.Washington is next
11.Hanger 18
12.In my darkest hour
13.Take no Prisoners
14.Holy Wars...punishment due
15.Mechanix[played in between Holy wars]

Some songs which I expected them to play[but they didnot play] were 'countdown to extinction', 'sweating bullets', 'United abominations'[I was sure of this since this was the title of the tour],'This was my life', 'Addicted to chaos' and 'Captive honour'. But still this was a great concert, a once in a lifetime experience. And I wouldn't have missed it for anything, not even work :P. The concert ended faster than expected at 10PM and we were left craving for more. As if he read our minds, Mustaine announced that he really loved playing here and that they would be back again to rock us...Now, am waiting for that day...Until then, its memories of this great day all the way

PS- Couldn't put up the pics I took there online cos its still in my mobile. Would do that soon.

PPS- Do checkout this interesting blog on the concert by young metal head Hari, a 10th standard student- http://hari-musicmania.blogspot.com/

your crusader Praveen

The 'Maiden' Miss

This is really a bad day for me as I'll miss watching 'Iron maiden' performing live in mumbai marking the beginning of their 'somewhere back in time' world tour. I can safely say that watching them live some months back during their banglore show was one of the greatest experiences I ever had in my life. If that concert was a mix of old and new, this mumbai jig is exclusively in tribute to the good old days. Coupled with that, they've chartered a flight titled 'ed force one' with a mammoth amount of equipments being flown in[our own great bruce dickinson himself is flying the plane]. So, Me and my friends were eagerly waiting for this. But, as fate would have it, we have our final exam of training scheduled on monday and we had to drop that plan.

Now, poor me is sitting here catching every possible news on the concert on the tv and net. My ipod been playing Iron maiden non stop for the last 2 days. To get that concert feel, am playing 'rock in rio' and 'live at donington'. And also browsing through the old pics that I took last year during 'eddfest 'o7' at Banglore.

So, for all those who missed the show, here's a link to last year's concert review and a collection of pictures from the concert.

Iron Maiden eddfest '07 -Banglore concert review
Snaps from the Banglore concert

your crusader Praveen

Rage- Making Chennai bang
Yeah..am at it again. Writing another concert review. After I wrote the report on Motherjane concert, someone commented, ''That is the most Amateurish write-up that I have read in my whole life about a concert''. So, here is another amateurish stuff on an awesome band coming your way.

Rage, the band been ruling the kerala metal kingdom for sometime. No one played the way they played their covers. Over the years, they've built up a legion of fans all over the state. And it was just a matter of time before they crossed the boundaries of the state and won fans beyond the borders. And cross they did... with a majestic show at Madras Christian College[MCC]. As we all know, MCC is a place where almost all the top bands in India have performed at some point or the other. And, so Rage getting a call to play at this very same venue is a matter of pride to its loyal fans down here. So, we [me, raja, nikhil, pappu, jk] decided to go with the band to chennai.

We reached there on Saturday morning, the day of the concert. The campus, with its vast greenery blew us away. In the morning itself, Biju chettan and pramod chettan were called upto judge some acoustic competition. The other rage fans like govindan potty arrived in the afternoon. The soundcheck started around 3 30. And tell you one thing, the whole sound system was a piece of shit. The band had a hard time getting a presentable sound out of it. The soundcheck took close to 2 hours to complete. After the soundcheck, the local band Udaan performed. It played some Hindi rock stuff, somewhat like 'jal'. The band got ample support from their home crowd. It was over in less than 30 minutes, and now it was time for the all out attack from our very own RAGE.

The crowd was slowly building up when the band got on stage. Most of them preferred to sit in the gallery at the back. Only a few were standing in the front. And then, rage started the blast with '2 minutes to midnight'. In 2 minutes, the whole scene at the grounds changed. People were rushing to the front and banging their heads in tandem. The crowd was composed mainly of guys from the north east, whom we all affectionately call 'chinkis'. In recent times, the Chennai scene was dominated mostly by funksih bands. And Rage was a whiff of fresh air for them, as one of the students there told me. Biju Chettan was the most active on stage, running around, jumping and displaying all his 'Dickinson inspired' mannerisms. Abi chettan and Pramod chettan competed with each other in coming right to the front and proudly giving a wavy display of their long locks. Nithin Chettan preferred to let his guitar do all the talking, cutting out all the show off. Mithun chettan was all smiles as he attacked the drums with all his might.

The sound system was the one bad element in the whole show and any other band would have wilted under the pressure, but not Rage. The guitar lead parts were getting somewhat drowned because of the improper mixing and the sound system's limitations. The S & M version of 'one' gave keyboardist Biji his own time under the spotlight. It was all going along well until Nithin chettan's cable got separated from the processor towards the end. It happened when he, in a spirited mood, tried to come on to the front seeing the frenzied crowd. And, for a minute Pramod chettan's guitar[the processor was having a bad tone], the keyboard and the drums were the only things audible. But, they somehow pulled it back and ended it. Another untoward incident was the breaking of Nithin chettan's string towards the end of 'Master of puppets' lead. Barring these two incidents, there were not much human errors to speak about. And that is a huge credit to the band, since the whole show happened in trying conditions of sweltering heat and a sound system that could boast of nothing.

They also belted out 'Holy wars', 'aces high', 'back in black', 'gets me through', 'caught somehwhere in time'. The crowd were screaming out the names of all their favorite songs especially from Maiden and Metallica. Maybe, they thought that this would be their only chance to hear such near perfect covers which even the original bands themselves find difficult to perform on stage. Some nu metal fans were obviously in the audience as there were calls for 'killing in the name of', 'toxicity' etc. The crowd had a great time swaying to all the songs. Biju chettan and abi chettan played their part in bringing the crowd to its feet. Biju Chettan even hurled a bottle full of mineral water at the audience, a really thoughtful move considering the crowd who were getting tired with constant screaming, banging and jumping. And, so the show came to an end by 7pm, which was the time limit set by the college authorities. After that, there was the band interview with SS music, which also covered the entire show. Those who missed the live show should try to catch them on SS music sometime soon.

Thus, Rage has made a mark outside the state too. Hope many more big concerts come their way in the near future. Best of luck to the godfathers of metal in Trivandrum...rock on RAGE..\\m//

your crusader Praveen

STONEAGE live


Hello people,

Checkout our band stoneage performing live at Taj green cove, Kovalam. The event is kingfisher kerala rocks fest. Two of our original songs are shown in this video. The 1st one is called ''the mob''. Its against the pointless destruction caused by aimless mobs everywhere. The 2nd song is ''the return''. Its the story of a man who goes to prison for a crime he never committed. After 20 years he gets out from jail..but the soceity doesn't accept him...he begins to miss the jail and his friends there as he had become so used to the life there....he goes insane...and he commits a real crime and returns back to jail...

The lyrics are posted below

The Mob Song

Like a herd of unchained mad dogs
They storm the cities
With hearts so young and limbs so old
They roam the streets.

Destruction is the motto,
Revolution is the warcry,
''Revenge'', they cry out,
But where's the man at the hench?

Aimless to the core,
But no less is the roar,
Spilling blood on the road,
Still crying for more.

Leaving behind a trail of destruction,
Walking back with pride, on their contribution,
Little realising, its their own damnation.
I wonder, will there be a retribution?
****************

The Return

Behind the bars, I repent,
For what I never did.
These walls been my home and shelter,
These outlaws been my kin.

Behind the bars, I wait,
for the day has arrived
for me to bid goodbye,
to my abode of 20 years.

Walking the streets, it feels so new,
But the faces which smile at me are so few,
Is it just that am one not to be known,
'cause am the sign of a life went wrong.

I don't belong here, my heart says,
Now the bars beckon me,
For a crime I did,
I smile as the bars close behind me, one last time
*****************

The band members are as follows-
Vocals- Santhosh aka Mojojojo
Drums- Govind aka wolfrider
Lead guitar- Sreemon aka sreemon
Bass Guitar- Mahadevan aka Nimrod
Rhythm Guitar- Praveen aka ME...

SO, thats $+oή€@g€ 4 u....
Hope u enjoyed the show...

with love,
your crusader Praveen