UNISONIC — Unisonic (review)

Album · 2012 · Heavy Metal

3.5/5 · 2012-05-23
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Unisonic is the self-titled debut album from the new band to feature the vocal talents of former Helloween frontman Michael Kiske. Kiske founded the band with bassist Dennis Ward (D.C. Cooper, Pink Cream 69, et al). The line-up also features guitarist Mandy Meyer (ex-Krokus), drummer Kosta Zafiriou (D.C. Cooper, ex-Pink Cream 69) and perhaps most notably considering his prior association with Kiske, power metal legend Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray, ex-Helloween, ex-Iron Savior) on guitars. The term supergroup is very much appropriate when regarding Unisonic in other words.

Although one might expect Unisonic to be rooted firmly in power metal territory considering Kiske and Hansen’s backgrounds this isn’t the case. Nor apparently is it intended to be. There’s very little power metal to be found here and the band have actually said in interviews that Unisonic isn’t a metal band. Well the music on their debut tells a little bit of a different story to what Unisonic have said, actually treading the fine line between hard rock and traditional heavy metal.

And really it’s a nice enough album. I’m sure fans of Kiske’s vocals are going to be happy with it for the most part, because the man hasn’t lost anything in the time between this and the Helloween days. However musically we aren’t talking an album that is exactly revolutionary or I dare say one that stands up to Kiske and Hansen’s best works. I can’t factor in how Unisonic compares to the other three members back catalogues, because I lack any sort of familiarity with any of them, although since we’re talking the compositional front, it’s less Kiske on the line and more Hansen and Ward, who wrote the majority of the album. I’m can’t speak for Ward, but Hansen has written infinitely better songs for both Helloween and Gamma Ray.

Still, it’s not a bad release at all that Unisonic have crafted here, but I can’t help shake the feeling that its biggest appeal lies in the nostalgia that the reunion of Kiske and Hansen will bring for long-time fans of Helloween, even though the music is in a somewhat different style to the power metal of the two Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. I have to be fair, it brings to mind more aspects of Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon than Keepers. I can’t shake the feeling that if this album were released anonymously or with unknowns then it would mostly go completely under the radar, not because it’s inherently bad or anything, it’s really not, but it’s not exactly remarkable either. Few songs really stand out in any way other than Kiske’s vocals. The best of the bunch would easily be the first two, a self-titled track and Souls Alive. After that it’s very much a more of the same record from start to finish, offering up little in the way of surprise or variety. The pace of the tracks may change but that’s really about it.

However there are enough merits, especially vocally, that saying it’s a fans only release would be harsh. There is a fair bit of potential for Unisonic to make something to rival Helloween and Gamma Ray’s best works. After all they have the voice and the composer to make it happen, although as with Gamma Ray’s prior offering to this, To the Metal! (2010), Kai’s writing in particular just doesn’t stand out as much as it did particular in the Gamma Ray era between 1995 and 2001 where the band released classic power metal albums such as Land of the Free, Somewhere Out in Space and No World Order. A ‘good but not great’ rating is just about deserved. I’ll freely about that there’s a few extra points in there for the nostalgia.

6.7/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))