metal

Ankor

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Spanish outfit welding metalcore riffing to electronic textures behind a commanding female vocal front.

Ankor formed in 2003 in Els Pallaresos, a village near Barcelona in Catalonia, and started out playing power metal before shifting toward a heavier, more electronic sound over the following decade.

The band is built around guitarists David Romeu and Fito Martinez, bassist Julio López and drummer Eleni Nota, with British singer Jessie Williams fronting since 2014. Williams moves between melodic singing and harsher screamed delivery, and has said Spain's limited demand for metal music was part of why she left Britain to join a band aimed at a global audience.

Their arrangements lean on big choruses and programmed layers alongside breakdowns, placing them closer to modern melodic metalcore than to anything traditional, combining metalcore guitar work with synth and electronic production. Williams has pointed to Japanese culture, Falling in Reverse, Maximum the Hormone, hip-hop and classical music as reference points.

Ankor built much of their following through touring and self-directed releases rather than a single breakout record. Readers of the Spanish and South American rock magazine La Heavy named them best newcomer band in 2014, and a decade later they signed to the Australian label UNFD, releasing their debut album, Shoganai, in 2024.

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