Band : Ancara

Album title : Beyond The Dark

Label : Metal Heaven

Distributor : Rough Trade

Release date : 28/03/2008

Release : CD

Apparently a Finnish band with a long history, with long-term musicians whose musical roots are firmly located in the eighties, Ancara got its current line-up comprising Sam my Salminen (lead vocals), Sam uel Hjelt (guitar, backing vocals), Juka Wahlsten (guitar), Mika Rajala (bass) and Tim o Rajala (drums) after several member changes and new beginnings, in 2003.

The fivesome founded their own label to release their (May 17) 2006 debut full-length The Dawn , and in spite of being an small independent release the album got to #25 in the charts of their home country. Only 3 months later they issued their The World EP (containing the unreleased title track in radio edit and normal length, the album version of the track "The Dawn" , and a live version of "Burn In Hell" ), which was a cooperation of the band with orchestral conductor Riku Niemi (known from working with such famed bands as Stratovarius and Nightwish ) and did even better by getting into the Top 10 of the singles charts, staying there a total of four weeks.

Recorded at Finnvox Studios and E-Major Studios in the Spring of 2007, with production handled by the band plus Arto Tuunela and Emppu Vuorinen ( Nightwish ), and the band released the (originally 8-tracked) album on August 22 nd of last year. Much to their pleasant surprise the album did even better than the previous one, taking the #9 position in its opening week. Websingle Deny , released two months earlier, and its video, were aired frequently on Finnish radio and music TV since. Of course, feats like that are bound to be noticed by "regular" record labels, and it seems it certainly was by Germany's Metal Heaven, offering the band to give the album a distribution in the rest of Europe.

Meanwhile the band finished a second video, this time for "Just For Me" in late December 2007. It is included on the European version of the album, alongside a new video for "Deny" , two audio bonus tracks, and a live version of their live favourite "Burn In Hell" . Musically, you could call the band a modern version of '80s Heavy Rock bands, and there's a certain AOR feel present in most of the band's songs, if only in the clean lead and backing vocals. The "modern" touch is in the Metal touch that is given the material. At myspace.com/antara you'll find mp3-files for "Deny" , "Snowflower" (wónderful lead guitar repeated over again makes this...dare I say semi-ballad?, along with album opener "Circles" to the highlights of the album), "Just For Me" , a studio version of live bonus track "Burn In Hell" , and an additional track off the first album. There's also the two videos...well, I ain't sure if that for "Deny" is the one on the album, of course, because the videos weren't included on our promo copy.

Enough for you to get acqainted with this band. Personally, while I'll admit it's all well written and executed...and I appologize to the band in advance if I'm wrong...feel a touch of commercialism for commercialism's sake! Still, at the end of the day, who cares? If this is your thing, you'll check out the music and then decide whether what they offer is worth buying the album for. And, as I've told you: they dó have some very nice moments!

84/100

Tony.