Anima

Nordhausen, Germany, is where Anima first began to coalesce in 2005, though the name should not be mistaken for any of the numerous other metal acts worldwide that share it. Guitarist André Steinmann and drummer Benjamin Kühnemund launched the project under the name Metmachines and soon added second guitarist Steven Holl along with bassist Justin Schüler. Before 2005 concluded the band had already switched to Today Heaven's Dying, only to settle on its current single-word identity by the following year, when the original singer left and Robert Horn stepped in as frontman. Still teenagers at the time, this same lineup recorded and self-produced the debut album Souls of the Decedents, which earned the group a contract with the regional imprint All Life Ends Records. New songs were already being prepared shortly after that release, and five tracks uploaded to the band’s MySpace page drew the interest of Metal Blade Records, which signed Anima to a fresh deal and issued the second album The Daily Grind in 2008.