Anvil - Forged in Fire (1983)^{Release ID: 5824}

I remember back in the early 1980s Anvil were quite often featured in mags like Kerrang!, but back then, being a lot younger, I was apt to make harsh and completely unbased snap judgements about things and had decided early on that Lips looked like "a bit of a twat" so promptly ignored anything that Anvil put out. I did see the documentary about them, The Story of Anvil, and it did end up with me rooting for the dogged Canadians, but it is only recently however, over the last couple of months in fact, that I have finally checked out any Anvil releases and I guess it's me who is the twat because I have thoroughly enjoyed their first couple of albums (although the debut is lyrically quite embarrassing) and so I have missed out on many years of Anvil enjoyment.

So to album number three, 1983's Forged In Fire and, for me, this is the best one yet. Anvil strike me a little as how Venom may sound if they were better musicians and ditched the horror/satanic imagery - and I mean that as a compliment as I love Venom. Most of the tracks are highly-charged, speed-driven rippers with some really cool riffs and impressive lead work from the unjustifiably maligned (by me) Steve "Lips" Kudlow that owe a fair bit to post-Killing Machine Judas Priest. Opener Forged in Fire includes a Stargazer-like section where Lips let's loose with a soaring solo and the following track, Shadow Zone, has another brilliant extended solo during it's latter section that show exactly how egregiously I had misjudged poor old Lips who, it turns out, is one hell of a metal guitarist.

It's not all a complete love-in from me though and Forged In Fire does contain a couple of clunkers, the worst of which is Never Deceive Me and, to a lesser extent, Make It Up to You, both of which sound like possible attempts at producing tracks for radio play. Butter Bust Jerky has a really odd-sounding chorus too, otherwise it is great with more red-hot soloing from old Lips. The middle section of the album does hit a bit of a plateau, but the closing duo of the searing Motormount and Winged Assassins ensure that the album ends on a high.

All in all this was a very satisfying listen and a really great slab of classic metal that I was a fool to overlook first time around.