These are the first cuts featuring Anvil‘s new bassist Sal Italiano, who joined the band a year ago. “We’re really happy with Sal, his style is powerful and amazingly imaginative. It’s a little as if we’d enlisted Steve Harris,” enthuses guitarist/vocalist Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow, who composed the whole album together with drums legend Robb Reiner.
Hope In Hell was written and recorded following an 18-month world tour which took Anvil around the globe. “We hadn’t expected this kind of extensive tour when we brought out Juggernaut Of Justice,” Kudlow confesses. “Time just flew by. I could hardly believe it when I found myself in the studio again after the tour, ready to work on the next album. The reactions to Juggernaut Of Justice and the shows had been so positive that we had plenty of ideas and inspiration for new material.”
Kudlow promises the kind of album that Anvil fans will love: no concessions to short-lived trends, no modern frills but traditional metal with lots of classic rock music elements.
“What we do is totally timeless,” says Anvil’s frontman. “We’ve never tried to change our sound or experiment with trends and fashions. We live in our own world and have maintained our individuality and own identity.”
Like Juggernaut Of Justice, Hope In Hell was produced by Bob Marlette (BLACK SABBATH, AIRBOURNE, ALICE COOPER) at the NRG Recording studios in North Hollywood, California, and brilliantly mastered by Maor Appelbaum (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, SEPULTURA).
(Photo: Grant Yoshino)
