Any Given Day album review – Everlasting

Rhianna-loving tech-metallers Any Given Day fail to prove their staying power with new album

Any Given Day 'Everlasting' album cover

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Seemingly destined to be known as ‘that band who covered Rhianna’s Diamonds, Germany’s Any Given Day nonetheless delivered a solid debut, My Longest Way Home, in 2014, with a more bludgeoning take on djent-cum-prog-metal.

But although the grunt is still impressive throughout this second effort, not least on Endurance and the Meshuggah homage of Ignite The Light, the momentum is lost when the one-dimensional choruses and stripped-down melodies are given centre stage.

Mask Of Lies and the bullish thump of Masquerade may have sounded fresh at the turn of the decade but the majority of the ideas have been done to death or improved upon elsewhere, meaning that for all its sheen, Everlasting never hits the peaks it promises. Even Matt Heafy seems underwhelmed during his flat cameo on the decent nu metal groove of Arise. AGD have plenty of potential to combine their rugged metallic edge and the more acclaimed ingenuity of the progressive bands they reference, but they’re still off the pace.

Adam Brennan

Rugby, Sean Bean and power ballad superfan Adam has been writing for Hammer since 2007, and has a bad habit of constructing sentences longer than most Dream Theater songs. Can usually be found cowering at the back of gigs in Bristol and Cardiff. Bruce Dickinson once called him a 'sad bastard'.