For those that have witnessed the joy that is the Anvil documentary, “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” about the forgotten ’80s metal thrash band and the temperamental relationship between its two best friend founding members, Robb Reiner and Steve “Lips” Kudlow, one of the most absurd yet genuine moments in the film is when the duo discuss the song, “Thumb Hang,” the first tune they ever wrote when they were teenagers.
Directed by Sacha Gervasi, a former roadie of the group when he was a teenager, the scene epitomizes the documentary and the band; goofs that are hard to take seriously initially, but who are so passionate and sincere, eventually you stop laughing at them and cheer them on.
“We tried to write a song about the Spanish Inquisition. We learned about it in history class, they would hang people up by their thumbs if they didn’t take on Catholicism. So I figured, hey, there’s a cool subject,” Kudlow says in the doc (there’s a clip below)
However, in the band’s 36 year history (the origins of Anvil go back to 1973 in Toronto, Canada), “Thumb Hang” had never been recorded until now. And it’s going to make its debut on the film’s soundtrack which is set to hit later this year (plans are still being determined).
“We just finished recording ‘Thumb Hang,’ so that’s ready for [the soundtrack]. It turned out amazing,” Kudlow told the Playlist. “We wrote this song when we were kids and never used it.”
As previously reported, they’ve also recorded songs for the Rock Band video game. “We did a version of ‘Metal On Metal’ and ‘666’ for that. They were incredible, the newer versions are better than the old versions,” he said.
Kudlow had a lot praise for American audiences that have reacted with wild enthusiasm to the film’s screenings thus far. “I guess when they like a film, they really like it, man. It’s a pretty bizarre outpouring of emotions towards us. It’s a breath of fresh air.”
As discussed many times, there’s also been an outpouring of love from the metal community (various metal godheads are featured in the film including members of Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Guns N’ Roses, etc.), but there’s always people coming out of the woodwork that surprise the band, “Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon [was a huge fan]. It’s like, what? It’s crazy,” Lips laughed. “John Mayer was really impressed as well.”
We’ll have details on the “Anvil!” soundtrack as the plan coalesces later this year.
Anvil discuss the making of the song, “Thumb Hang”
Clip: Motorhead’s Lemmy and more discuss the band in the documentary, “Anvil! The Story of Anvil”
