Germany is a region that contains most of the best metal, in my opinion. With bands like Rammstein, Deadlock, Words of Farewell, Accept, and so many more, Germany is a great place for metal. There are now over a hundred metal bands from the area. You could say that Germany helped bring the genre to its high point with Wacken and Rock Am Ring, both epic annual musicc festivals. People from all over the world say Wacken is the greatest music festival of all time, topping American festivals by a mile. Wacken has been held for almost 25 years now, making it a historical festival. Rock Am Ring has the sickest crowds with a three day attendance total at 150,000 rock and metal fans Germany should certainly be credited with having such an amazing breeding environment for music.
There’s a lot of inspiring history, scenery, and people in Germany. From the reign of the Holy Roman Empire in the 840s, the Holocaust, to the Berlin Wall, Germany no doubt has enough pain to influence music for centuries. Pain creates many powerful songs as opposed to happiness, said by many famous writers from the dawn of music. Maybe this pain combined with the beautiful scenery and advanced way of thinking (Compared to where I live in the USA, Germany is really advanced) is why German metal is so unique. You can find anything from Symphonic Metal to Thrash and Death metal, and yet all these types have that signature German technicality. It’s an interesting thing to find so much quality metal in one country alone, because it honestly is one of the universal languages in the world since the late 70’s. I give much credit to Germany to influencing so many incredible musicians and metal bands.
I recently found yet another band that encompasses all the amazing qualities of this region’s metal scene. A Newage Melodic Deathcore metal band from Germany, Any Given Day, released their latest album My Longest Way Home. The album contains sounds that are reminiscent of old Killswitch Engage, Bury Your Dead, Divine Heresy, and the melodic qualities of Insomnium. By that description, I expected a very moving but heavy album that would absolutely blow any “Metalcore” album away from the past couple years. It wasn’t a hard feat, but Any Given Day succeeded all my expectations and more than a short review could cover alone. Finding this gem of an album shined up the rather dull pot that I consider to be the genre of Metalcore.
My Longest Way Home is everything metal has been lacking for quite awhile. It’s a mix of heavy chugging riffs, haunting melodic tracks, chest pounding growls, and technical musicianship with one word I crave to feel with music; Passion. Passion can be heard front and center in this album. From the middle of the first track Darkness Within, to the end of the last track Possession, the passion is almost tangible. Every track in between is inspiring, gritty, powerful, and just superbly composed.
To continue with the review after Darkness Within, Dead and Gone is a chugging rhythmic track to open up the smallest and lamest pits around. The Beginning of the End contains a dash of Thrash with Djent style guitars that Tesseract mastered so well, but Any Given Day integrated in a whole new way. Anthem for the Voiceless is indeed an anthem, with intense heavy masterful vocals from beastly singer Dennis Diehl. On to one of my favorite tracks of 2014, Home is Where the Heart is, a beautifully inspiring melodic death metal song with a haunting emphasis. That song is unlike anything I’ve heard in my decade of journeying to find the best and most passionate music in the world.
On to My Own Sweet Hell, a Five Finger Death Punch-like pounding track that trudges through the heaviest part of the album. Yet again with this track, Any Given Day breaks out of the Metalcore mold. Dead Forever is completely different from the rest of the album, with the slow building vocals and guitar. The song is definitely slower and cleaner, but gives a fresh break in the album. Never Say Die is an anthemic metal core track that may appeal to the lighter metal fans, even though it has a wicked breakdown towards the end. If Tomorrow Never Shows sounds like an intense, heavy, angry break up letter that you’d never want to receive from Dennis, who delivers powerful and honest vocals perfectly in this particular track. Possession launches the end of the album with a hard driving jam that once again proves this band is just as dynamic and technical as any German metal band.
My Longest Way Home is one of my favorite albums of 2014. There is so many qualities about this album that surpass 90% of Metalcore bands out there. Expectations of their next album are extremely high for me and I can’t wait to hear if they can progress and grow into a bigger band. I hope this review convinces everyone to check Any Given Day out.
LINKS;
http://www.anygivenday.eu/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbomlWknAOQ
https://www.facebook.com/AnyxGivenxDay
[photo credit: Daniel Sommer] 
Metal Valkyrie 