ANIMA - The Daily Grind

9 songs
33:22 minutes
***** **
Metal Blade

Bandpage

The band photo probably scares away everyone who has outgrown his teenage years. Five kids, between sixteen and nineteen years young, have this too fashionable emo look about them. You know: black dyed hair, painful piercings and an overall pale complexion. Fortunately their music, which they describe as deathcore, is much harder than what we are used to hear from such clothed young ones. Firmly rooted in American styled metalcore, The Daily Grind takes advantage from an impeccable production that takes the best out of this still very young band. Considering that they released their debut two years earlier on a smaller label, it becomes clear that Anima must have started at a very tender age, and therefore gathered already quite a lot of experience.

I am relieved that they do without melodic vocals, which would have slipped the album immediately into too clichéd territories. Instead we have a vocalist who manages evil growls and higher pitched scream(o)s. The guitar team is what grounds the band in a more death metal sound, shredding at times quite fast through their songs. The occasional solos show that they must have had also some lessons in more traditional metal. The rhythm section is ultra-tight, providing the base on which the songs stand.

This all sounds very good, but let’s not get overexcited. What The Daily Grind lacks are hits. Every song is good by itself, but only the album’s relatively short running time prevents boredom from creeping up. The Thuringians initially planned to release this as a five track EP, which would have benefitted their listeners’ attention spans, but then we all know that EPs by still unknown bands are hard to sell. You get a solid mix between death metal and metal core, hence deathcore, on The Daily Grind, but originality is not yet Anima’s strength. They deserve respect though for having come up with an already such professional sounding CD before even having turned twenty. If they polish their songwriting skills, they will have a very promising career ahead of them.