Ex Animo – Neverday

Ex Animo is, as is often the case when it comes to the Gothic Metal genre, a female-fronted quintet, in this case one that hails from Ukraine. This does not hinder them in delivering the lyrics (quite expertly so I might add) in English, to which I am them very grateful, as I do not speak Ukranian. Neverday marks the second full-length collaboration created by Ex Animo in their sixteen years active. And colour me impressed. From what the great wide web tells me, Ex Animo started off as a Doom Metal act, before turning their attention towards the Gothic Metal genre they play today. And while they have embraced this change completely musically, I do still feel like a bit of the ambience and atmosphere present on Neverday that you sometimes find on Doom Metal records. Nevertheless, tracks such as ”The Memories of a Broken Man” are memorable due to their melodic, catchy riffs and melancholic, yet almost sensual vocal track (the female one), coupled with an additional, growling vocal track on some tracks (including the one mentioned above). All in all, Neverday contains seven tracks and an outro, which have a running total just short of fifty minutes. Of these, I find it difficult to pinpoint one particularly good track upon this record (as I find all of them to be of the same high standard), I will make a point out of mentioning ”Shattered Universe”, both because it is the track I have listened to the most, and since it is the first single released from Neverday. If I am to recommend Ex Animo to fans of other Gothic Metal bands, I would probably have to mention After Forever as well as Iced Earth, both because of the somewhat similarity in musical style, but also in the atmosphere created by the band.

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