Robb Reiner, drummer for Canadian metal legends ANVIL, is featured in a new interview with Mark Dean at Myglobalmind.com. An excerpt is available below:

Myglobalmind: As a huge fan from your early releases Hard N' Heavy, Forged In Fire and Metal On Metal in the 80?s, I have a particular fondness for that lineup. Are you still personally in touch with Dave Allison,and Ian Dickson? In the current trend of band reunions,and reformations is that something that you and Lips have ever considered?? Especially when financially times were difficult for the band, and you having to take other jobs etc..?

Robb: "In recent years we have been throwing the notion around of doing a world tour and calling it the 1, 2, 3 tour. Which really means that we would only play songs from the first three records and having said that, there has been discussion of doing it with the original guys but at this moment, it’s unknown and un-determined if they are physically in the condition to weather the life of rock n’ roll for a tour. Regardless of their involvement, we still plan on doing this tour."

Myglobalmind: How do you justify Anvil’s place in the current digital age of technology? Has the modern changes in the industry been a benefit or hindrance to bands with a longevity?

Robb: "We all miss recording on 2 inch tape, but who cares, we now all have Pro Tools. Pro Tools gives the artist endless creative manipulative processes that the past never had. Is it better or worse? It can make it easier for anybody. I guess we can all thank the digital age for killing the sale of music. ie. digital downloads."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Two years after their current release, Juggernaut Of Justice, Anvil are back with their latest studio album. Hope In Hell, an impressive metal recording featuring 13 haunting songs, has been scheduled for release on May 27th in Europe and May 24th in Germany on SPV / Steamhammer and will be available in four different formats: as a limited-edition digipak including two bonus tracks, as a jewel case CD, double gatefold colored vinyl LP and as download.

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)