Ancara

Though they didn't break into the national mainstream until 2006, Ancara are an English-language heavy metal band from Finland with a long history dating back to the mid-'80s. With ties to the Finnish towns of Kerava, Tuusula, and Järvenpää, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal-inspired band was originally founded in 1985 under the name Metal Circus, before changing its name to simply MC; then in 1992 the band changed its name to Resistance, and finally to Ancara in 1996. It would be another ten years, however, before the band would release its full-length debut album, The Dawn (2006). By that time, the band's lineup had shuffled numerous times before settling into a quintet comprised of Sammy Salminen (lead vocals), Mika Rajala (bass), Samuel Hjelt (guitar, vocals), Juha Wahlsten (guitar, vocals), and Timo Rajala (drums), of whom only one bandmember (Rajala) remains from the original founding of the band as Metal Circus in 1985. Three months after the release of their full-length album debut, which broke into the Top 30 of the Finnish albums chart, Ancara released the non-album single The World, the title track of which features Riku Niemi and became a number two hit on the singles chart. The band's follow-up album, Beyond the Dark (2007), topped the success of its predecessor, charting within the Top Ten and spawning the heavily aired single "Deny"; the album was subsequently released internationally throughout Europe by the Metal Heaven label in 2008.