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Thin lizzy the holy war6/12/2023 ![]() Sadly, such commercial peaks weren't open to Agent Orange in the early 80s, though there's a sense the band wouldn't have pursued them anyway. Alongside bands like Adolescents (with whom they briefly shared key member Steve Soto) and Descendents, Agent Orange were a key influence on the 90s punk revival that saw it hit new commercial peaks. Long before Bad Religion embraced melody and while Green Day were still in school, Agent Orange's offered a surf-infused new vision for where punk could yet go. Unfortunately, like so many others, Anvil's fortunes took a decided dip in the 90s and their post-documentary comeback still hasn't elevated them to the top tier position they so richly deserved, though it certainly hasn't stopped them rocking for half a century without interruption. The band's closest brush was on 1987's Strength Of Steel, which broke into the Billboard 200 and peaked at number 191. By 1984 the band had earned enough acclaim to headline events like Japan's Super Rock Festival alongside the likes of Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and Scorpions, but major commercial success still somehow eluded them. With a NWOBHM-ish strut, the band made their debut in May 1981 with Hard 'n' Heavy, songs like At The Apartment tapping into the same effortlessly slick vibe that would later give Judas Priest their first major success in America on You've Got Another Thing Comin'. Despite influencing musicians including Lars Ulrich, Slash and Tom Araya, Anvil's stock remains criminally low even after the band won over the hearts of metal fans the world over with the aforementioned doc. ![]() But the whole point of Sacha Gervasi's iconic 2008 documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil was to point out just how criminally overlooked the Canadian heroes have been in the annals of rock and metal history. Yes, yes - we know you know who Anvil are. In almost two decades, the band had produced a macabre, almost gothic vision of punk that would serve as an enormous formative influence on the grunge scene, with bands ranging from Hole and Melvins to Nirvana and Mudhoney citing them as an influence. Wipers' debut Is This Real? arrived in January 1980 and heralded the arrival of the 80s alternative underground that would later host the likes of Husker Du, Replacements and The Minutemen, albeit with a sense that Wipers were already shirking current trends by resolutely avoiding hardcore and instead sticking to a classic strain of punk rock more in keeping with late 60s garage rock.Īctive throughout the 80s and 90s, the band released nine studio albums before entering a period of extended inactivity after 1999's Power In One. Formed in 1977, Wipers' brand of moody angst took elements of punk and post-punk, but refused to fit squarely into either camp. Grunge might have exploded in the 90s, but its roots could be traced right back to the start of the preceding decade.
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