Anvil! The Story Of Anvil is a masterpiece of self-promotion - - even the dozen people in the movie audience I saw it with consisted mostly of the band's friends and family, taking organized shifts to man the theatre in a consistent manner befitting an artisitic endeavor worthy of anyone's attention.

It's also a testament to the old adage: "It's never too late to say now or never and not hesitate before you're lost and time keep's on slippin', slippin' into the future."

The use of historical footage of Anvil's glory years weeks, creates a surprisingly resonant grace note to the present day tale of lifelong friendship (dare I say bromance), and then the uncritical commitment to the music itself. In this case, the music is that of publicity management. Oh, I can hear the dulcet tones now - - I got tighter jeans on, since I saw you, got biter genes so, ya better guess who...

The way they fake the authenticity in this film is very convincing in it's artifice.

It's the rare rockumentary where the band spins into control...

...and then, whadda ya know? The songs are good after all that. I can imagine buying This Is Thirteen at anvilmetal.com or catching the band if they came to my town (...and I mean physically catching them, because those bastards stole my chickens last time they came to my town!)

My highest compliment to this film is that by the time it ended, I barely could believe that it was a true story anymore! (So I read some of the five (5!) Amazon.com reviews for Anvil's 1982 album Metal On Metal, and it brought me pounding back down to Earth like a hammer to...)

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