Anvil – Impact Is Imminent Review: “I feel Anvil went downhill with this album.”

I was really excited when I saw Anvil was releasing a new album. I always had a lot of respect for this band — they have been going strong since the early 80s, and that’s something you have to admire. I liked their 2020 release, Legal at Last, so I was looking forward to this album.

Impact Is Imminent has a lot of promise. The guitar playing is some of the best I’ve heard from Anvil and the drumming is as solid as ever. However, I feel Anvil went downhill with this album. There are some decent songs on the album, but most of the songs aren’t the best that Anvil has released.

This album has a lot of promise and we see it with the instrumentals. Take a song such as “Ghost Shadow” as an example. The song opens up with a killer intro that sounds like pure energy. I’m expecting a real thrashy headbanger of a song. The drumming is especially amazing; Robb Reiner really drives this entire song.

But the song goes downhill when the vocals start. I have to say, Lips’ vocals aren’t what they used to be. Listening to past material such as Forged in Fire, his vocals had this annihilating quality to them. Now, his vocals just sound weak. It sounds like he’s trying to reach the same notes he could pull off in the 80s. Given, I understand after 40 years, your vocals aren’t going to sound the same. I will also argue that I’ve seen other vocalists still work with their weaknesses in clever ways. Lips’ vocals now just sound effortless.

With that being said, “Ghost Shadow” is one of the better songs on the album. The band released it as a single and judging by the comments, fans seem to dig it.

The next song, “Another Gun Fight,” is another one of the better songs. The beginning of the song is the closest thing you will get to a heavy metal jig. It’s catchy and one you can dance to — something creative I wasn’t expecting from Anvil. Lips also uses a better choice of vocal register. He’s mainly using his natural voice throughout this song; I’m not blown away, but his vocals do sound solid.

Let’s go down a little more to “Bad Side of Town.” This is a heavier one — you can definitely hear the Motorhead influence. It has a bold sound and I can hear Lips trying to capture Lemmy’s voice in this one. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the same attitude.

Compared to older songs, I feel the guitars are more adventurous here. Lips unleashes some killer solos, and the solo in this song is hard-hitting.

The next song, “Wizard’s Wand,” is a little strange. The beginning of the song features more of the gutsy catchiness we don’t see often in heavy metal. However, this song fails in a few ways. Let’s take the lyrics as the first example. The lyrics fail to resonate with the listener and just sound really cheesy. Again, with the vocals, you can tell Lips is trying to reach those 80s high notes. His voice just ends up sounding wheezy.

Anvil’s new album takes a pattern. The intro is always killer, then the vocals weaken the song, but the solo always makes up for it. The solo in “Wizard’s Wand” has the same wailing tone that I love from their 80s material. Then, it dips back down as the original riff and vocals come back in.

I don’t want to say this album is bad, but it’s not what I hyped it up to be. There are some great qualities of this album, especially the soloing. But some songs aren’t impressive and others are just strange. I don’t feel there are any songs on this album that I would want to go back and listen to. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to give it a low rating.

Rating: 4/10