{"id":41887,"date":"2010-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/this-is-thirteen\/"},"modified":"2010-02-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T00:00:00","slug":"this-is-thirteen","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/this-is-thirteen\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Thirteen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe the entire metal universe is messed up because of Anvil! The Story of Anvil<\/i>. Until that movie was released, Anvil was an obscure footnote to \u201880s metal that went pretty much unnoticed. To summarize the movie, Anvil was on top of the world in the \u201880s, playing alongside the Scorpions and others, but commercial and mass success escaped their grasp. The band members never achieved the success they so desired when guitarist\/vocalist Lips and drummer Robb Reiner got together when they were kids. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Anvil! The Story of Anvil<\/i> has achieved a lot of critical and commercial success, and is a compelling film. The movie\u2019s theme highlights what they consider to be the grave injustice that the group never quite \u201cmade it\u201d as a major band. VH1 got behind Anvil, and VH1 Classic Records has released This Is Thirteen<\/i>. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

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Before I continue, I should note that I liked the movie. I thought it was a smart film that didn\u2019t attempt to sugarcoat the band\u2019s struggles. However, if you separate the band in the movie and the band that is on this disc, you don\u2019t end up with much worth paying attention to. Maybe they should have slipped away as a footnote and not have released any other music. The band on this album \u2013vocalist\/guitarist Lips, drummer Robb Reiner, and bassist Glenn Five \u2013 did not compose compelling music for this release. It is one of the blandest and by-the-numbers metal releases that I have heard in quite a while. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The lyrics are firmly grounded in clich\u00e9s. How many aptly-named metal songs do we need about bombs (\u201cBombs Away\u201d), bridges that are burning (\u201cBurning Bridges\u201d), flying (\u201cFlying Blind\u201d), and fighting (\u201cReady To Fight\u201d)? How many more times do we need to hear about games being over (\u201cGame Over\u201d) and axes (\u201cAxe To Grind\u201d) in heavy metal? These themes have all been addressed countless times by other bands with more compelling lyrics than repeating the song title four times and calling it a chorus. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The glimpses of new ideas here are just are not attention-grabbing in the least. Songs about numbers (\u201cThis Is Thirteen\u201d & \u201cRoom #9\u201d) and big business corruption (\u201cFeed The Greed\u201d and, what else, \u201cBig Business\u201d) are not executed well.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0A song about remorse and regret (\u201cShould\u2019 A Would\u2019 A Could\u2019 A\u201d) relies on a weak chorus and an even weaker verse lyrically, with Lips singing \u201cIn the lottery of life you need a ticket to win \/ Got to know where you come from\u201d in the first verse and \u201cLife is like a card game \/ A good hand makes you win \/ Got to know your enemies \/ Before the war begins\u201d in the second verse.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Musically, Reiner plays some nice drum fills, most notably in \u201cReady To Fight,\u201d which distracted me from the methodical and uninspired guitar riffs from Lips. But Reiner cannot save a doomed song like \u201cFlying Blind,\u201d no matter what tricks he does behind his drum kit. \u201cRoom #9\u201d also suffers from a weak guitar riff that sounds all too familiar the first time you hear it.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I was immensely disappointed with this album. I wanted to like it because I liked the movie, but ultimately, this is a rote and boring metal release. <\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8532],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-41887","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-anvil","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41887"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}