The Story of Anvil

I watched The Story of Anvil last night - a documentary about Anvil, a pioneering, well respected band in the heavy metal community that began in the 80's but never achieved success. The documentary takes place in 2007 with the aging musicians (now in their 50's) still desperately hoping for stardom. I didn't really know what to expect from this, although after rave reviews I expected a lot. I ended up feeling very bad for the band members seeing them struggle on a poorly planned European tour, struggled to come up with the money to get their 13th album professionally produced and fought during the recording, and struggled trying to find a record company to distribute their album. It was just sad to see them continually beaten down.

Despite that it was still a pretty interesting movie. It shows you the side of the music industry that most bands live through - fighting with club owners over money, trying to promote your album on your own, playing in front of small crowds. For the bands that don't make it big, this is what you have to look forward to. But it's those bands that do it because they love the music and they love entertaining. Seeing Anvil enjoying playing in front of about a dozen people in a bar and still smiling because that's what they love to do was the bright spot of the movie for me. Overall I have to say this was a pretty good film, if not a feel good film.