Customer Reviews

Strength of Steel

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Anvil, the creature of Mr.Lips, were in the '80's one of the metal bands trying to reach the fame and the quality of bands like Maiden or Priest but they didn't. They came from the NWOBHM's movement, just like Maiden or Saxon, but their musical standards were always lower than those bands.

Anyway Anvil were, and still are, a solid, honest and true metal band playing a good type of heavy metal. Not a class A band but...who cares? Most of their albums are powerful and good, nothing special, but if you like the 80's american metal you MUST to buy some of them.

Their best works are considerated 'Forged In Fire', and 'Metal on Metal' but this 'Strength of Steel' sounds even better to me. That's because on this one Anvil are rude and wild, as always, but with a touch of catchy melodies more.

'Concrete Jungle' is amazing and thunderous with the blasting drumming of Mr. Robb Reiner, a strong and underrated drummer.

One of the most heavy drummers i've ever heard.

'Mad Dog' sounds like an Iron Maiden's track played under the influence of alchool and smoke.

'Strength of Steel' is anthemic and pounding, one of the best metal tracks of all times,IMO.

'Paper General' is the masterpiece of the work. Here the melodies works perfectly with the rude portions, showing the talent of the band.

No other words, let the Anvil pounds you!

Although Anvil was never the best of bands, they still rocked back in the day and are great for nostalgic purposes. Originally released by Metal Blade Records. They even made a video for "Mad Dog" and played it regularly on MTV's Headbanger's Ball.

Strength Of Steel was by far the best of the lot.

an amazing record but not worth 70 dollars, still chock full of amazing hits from an amazingly underated band.

This 1987 Anvil album road the line between commercial metal and non-commercial metal without being either, which evidently turned off fans on either side considering this is often (wrongly) considered Anvil's weakest recording.

Take, for instance, the number "Straight Between the Eyes": It definitely has a commercial edge but not in a puke-inducing manner like songs by, say, Poison or Warrant. The song is fun but maintains a heavy edge and has a killer chorus. The lyrics are overbearingly juvenile but typical of Anvil. Interestingly, this track was used as the title cut for the 1988 film "Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers." It should have been a breakthrough hit for the band like "You've Got Another Thing Coming" for Judas Priest, but unfortunately it never happened.

"Mad Dog" is similar but not as good IMHO. They made a video for this song, which was regularly played on Headbanger's Ball. Check it out on youtube, it's hilarious.

Needless to say, STRENGTH OF STEEL is worth picking up just for "Straight Between the Eyes" (as long as you can stomach the lyrics). Thankfully the disk includes additional killer songs like "Concrete Jungle," "Paper General" and "Kiss of Death."