Have you ever been abducted from your home by an alien controlled tractor beam and whisked away to be prodded like a science experiment? I wonder if the common picnic has roots in a torturous activity called Pick Nick? Stretch pants, think about that for a minute. I'm not suggesting for one minute that the government has a chocolate rocket... they could possibly have a chocolate rocket! If dogs can lick their own balls in public then dammit why can't we hire assistants to do that for us? A spiral cut ham colliding with your head at 25,000 miles per hour, food for thought. This cd is made of the same materials that other cds are made from however it has different songs than say a Diana Ross cd or a Nickelback cd or even a Stomping Tom cd. If you listen to this cd you will hear the difference that I am speaking of.
Read the above as 3.5 stars, but not quite 4. This is perhaps one of the bad production jobs lamented by Anvil in the film; after seeing which I felt the need to re-establish my relationship with this band and am now trying to get all their stuff after "Forged In Fire", where I left off...at this time, it's surprising how HARD TO GET most of their stuff is! High demand or what? ANYWAY, "Back To Basics" isn't as good as "This is 13" or "MeTal On MeTal" or "F.I.F."...but it is still pretty good. Let me get the production woes out of the way...the guitars sound kind've thin, lacking the crunch that they're meant to have. Lips' vocals suffer the most here...many of them sound as if they were recorded in one take, which USUALLY isn't good! Also, they are too flat in the mix, there is little presence and they sound like a guy dubbing vocals over music(which is usual procedure, but it is a producer's job to make it not SOUND that way) rather than having a "live" sound meshing with the songs. However, there is a solid, thick backline, with Robb's drums killing everything is sight like usual...in a good way! He should be revered much more than he is in the pantheon of MeTal Drum Gods. While Lips is known for his ability to slap extremely cool guitar solos/accents over the songs...it seems that this album's second guitarist, Ivan Hurd, is not! Lips manages to always make you feel like you're driving in a bitchin' muscle car really fast down a dark city street listening to wailing Heavy MeTal with his solos, and does on this album as well. Ivan's sound kind've, well, squeaky. But Lips does the preponderance of guitar work, so don't fear. The production could've been better, but this doesn't make the album crummy...in fact, Lips' vocals on here lend added depth in some instances, that a glossier production would've lost. Most notably in the poignant power-ballad "Cruel World", about a guy who has almost given up...but ultimately realizes that's something that isn't in his nature (sound familiar, film fans?). His cracking and frankly off-kilter voice elevates this to something more than a song. Anvil have their share of such songs, and they have something that most bands who attempt these lack:soul (and so, they work). Some of the songs are dumb, with the crowner "Keep It Up" hearkening back to such goofy fare as "Butter Bust Jerky" or "School Love"...low points on any Anvil album for me, but amusing highlights for others I'm sure. "The Chainsaw" is, for the most part, a structural if not note-for-note cover of Judas Priest's "Rapid Fire"(when you've never heard the song before and you can cue in the drum parts, chorus, bridge, etc., it is pretty obvious!), but Anvil isn't the only band who's done such things, are they? "Go Away" starts off excellently, but then there is some awkward pre-chorus that suddenly appears out of nowhere and throws off the whole attack of the song...peculiar indeed. It is at moments like this we must remember Lips being an avowed marijuana enthusiast. "Bottom Feeder" manages to be fast and "groovy" at the same time, and "Fast Driver" manages to be FAST...and remember, all of these have Lips' Canadian sensiblities as vocals over it all, sometimes conjuring beloved memories of Bob+Doug McKenzie(but only slightly). All in all a good album for what it is: Traditional Heavy MeTal!!!! I've heard PLENTY of albums by more "established" bands that are "slaughter"ed(how many of you catch that Canadian MeTal reference?) by this!