The 17th studio long-player from the stalwart Canadian rockers, Pounding the Pavement delivers a 12-track onslaught of no-frills trad/thrash metal that cares little for nuance or innovation. This shouldn't concern longtime Anvil fans, who have come to expect a certain AC/DC-style of sonic congruity over the years. The second go-round for bassist Chris Robertson, who joined the circus in 2016 for Anvil Is Anvil, Pounding the Pavement is largely cut from the same cloth as its predecessor, pairing old-school Accept/Running Wild/Motörhead-inspired riffage with tonsil-shredding invocations of the power of rock & roll. Produced with punchy pragmatism by Jörg Uken (God Dethroned, Dew-Scented), there's never a dull moment, at least sonically, but there is plenty of architectural staleness, which the band seems intent on parlaying into some sort of stylistic noncompliance movement, with the feisty "Doing What I Want" serving as its manifesto. The rock & roll life, specifically playing live, looms large thematically, with a three-song suite ("Smash your Face", the instrumental title cut, and the bone-headed, boogie-blasted, yet immensely likeable "Rock That Shit") arriving midway through. Elsewhere, the band tackles digital assistants ("Bitch in the Box"), oil drilling ("Nanook of the North"), and fake news ("Don't Tell Me") with the usual mix of mightiness and triteness, hammering away at their legacy with both brute strength and Sisyphean obedience.