AncarA-Garden Of Chains

Concorde Music Company
2017

It's the middle of a l-o-n-g week as I type this and shit-tinged stress is piling up on the road ahead. If there was ever a time in my life when I needed a album like "Garden Of Chains" then this is it! Born in 1985 as Metal Circus and known as Resistance for a couple of years there in the nineties, Finland's hard & heavy rock band AncarA offer up their sincere take on the grandiose side of the eighties alternative rock scene and we are all the better for it! Whether this is a new thing or that's the way it all started for lead vocalist Sammy Salminen (ex-Raskasta Joulua, ex-Seagrave) and crew is something that I honestly cannot tell you. Whatever the case, album number four seems to be the best of both worlds with the hard rock/heavy rock up there in front and the nostalgia rock right there in back. Thanks to the excellent production job of Jimmy Westerlund and Erno Laitinen, "Garden Of Chains" is nothing short of epic in the slick and shining department. As far as favorite moments go? Honest to God here folks, I got lost in this garden of heavenly delights and I'm not about to be feel guilty for that admission! Especially not with the week I've been having!! Anyway, how, and what not, opening number "The End (Easier Than Love)" has a official video going for it. I've posted it below. Don't be surprised by the sound that comes out of the group's lead singer. From what I've gathered, yes, that is his actually voice and no, I cannot imagine that I am the only person that that thought about Ian Astbury*. Or am I?

*AncarA sounds nothing like The Cult. In regards to the great Ian Astbury, Sammy gets the style points. Ultimately though, AncarA's front-man wins the big prize for leaving me filled with the same kind of emotionally warmth that I have for Ian's work on "Sonic Temple".