Biography
During the 80's, the golden age of Heavy Metal, there was no shortage of bands to look up to. The new wave of British heavy metal was hitting hard even on the distant shores of Finland, and as the result of countless hours of listening to and sucking in the new influences, a new band was born. The year was 1985 when Timo Rajala (dr), Timo Kytölä (gt), Jani Pellikka (gt) and Timo Sukupolvi (b/voc) founded the Metal Circus which was later on shortened to MC.
Two weeks after Metal Circus saw daylight, the band threw its first gig even with their limited skills with the newly acquired instruments. The set consisted of only one song called ”Move On” – but it was their own and their first, and a damn good one too. After their first gig MC kept playing with pretty much the same line-up until the end of the 80's, only the lead singer was changed a few times from Marko Haikonen to Jallu Bergäll to Rami Lindqvist (and back to Timo Sukupolvi whenever there wasn't an official lead singer around).
Year 1990 brought some major line-up changes with it. Mika Rajala started playing the bass and Sammy Salminen was chosen to be the new lead singer and the new MC was born. The four-member nucleus was now Timo Rajala (dr), Timo Kytölä (gt), Mika Rajala (b), Sammy Salminen (voc). The search for the second guitarist lasted for the whole decade, Riku Melen filling the spot from 1990 to 1991 and Arsi Leino from 1992 to 1995. After that, the group was shrunk back to four members. Also the name was changed twice: first to Resistance (1992-1995) before Ancara came into existence in 1996. Even though the whole metal scene was – according to some - going through its death cramps during the 90's, the band still recorded a stack of demos and played actively on stage, only slowing down for a while in the end of the decade.
In 1996 Timo Kytölä founded the Peacemakers recording studio to Jokela in southern Finland. The original idea of the studio was to be able to record the band's own material easily and affordably which worked great in the beginning. Keeping a high-quality recording studio up and running isn't cheap however, and more paying customers were needed to keep the shop open. Studio started to get some name after bands such as HIM used it for recording their material which of course was a great thing for Peacemakers, but all the work lead to less studio time for Ancara, and the whole studio project started to pose a threat to the bands existence.
The years 1998 and 1999 were difficult ones for Ancara and activity was close to non-existent. The band was practising occasionally but members were also having other more active projects going on. However, the spark for this band never died out completely during those years and in the beginning of the new millennium the reins were tightened and the group gathered together again. After a few lucky run-intos in bars, the place for the second guitar was filled again as Juice Wahlsten, an old friend, also jumped into the band wagon. Juha had had his own band and had been rocking in the same circles with the other band members since the 80's and was therefore a natural choice.
In the beginning of 2003, Ancara got into Samuel Hjelt's home studio to record demos of new material. Six songs were all recorded with one take, as the purpose was only to see what the new material was all about. Three of the songs (Black snow, Burn in hell and Too Far Gone) were released in 2003 on a promo single and the rest of the six (Bound to Roam, Come Apart and Why) were released in 2004, also on a promo single.
In the end of 2003 one of the founding members, Timo Kytölä, decided to step aside. His decision was accepted with heavy hearts – he wasn't only a great song writer but one of the cornerstones of the band also.
A new guitar player was found quite quickly however. Samuel Hjelt, in whose studio the band had recorded the promo singles, stepped into the guitarist's shoes. After that change, the band has stabilized its line-up to the current:
Timo Rajala (dr), Mika Rajala (b), Sammy Salminen (voc), Juice Wahlsten (gt/b.voc), Samuel Hjelt (gt/b.voc)
From the current members, all have had several different come-and-gone project bands along the road, from which there are also a heap of recordings as a reminder, but still this ”project” has always stayed alive. And will continue to do so.
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