Unisonic-Unisonic

Armoury
2012



Unisonic's big claim to fame seems to be the fact that it is the first musical union between former Helloween members Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen in some 23 years. Besides featuring the former Helloween vocalist (Kiske) and guitarist (Kai Hansen also of Gamma Ray) the band features guitarist Mandy Meyer (Asia, Gotthard and Krokus), bassist Dennis Ward and drummer Kosta Zafiriou (both of Germany’s Pink Cream 69). This self-titled album was preceded by their debut EP, "Ignition" earlier this year. For those of you hoping and praying for some sort of Helloween style magic with this album I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Its not as if this album will disappoint those who love melodic heavy rock. A cut like "Never To Late" is catchy and riff happy rock and roll with radio airplay written all over it. But is it Helloween like? More likely it is a really good mixture of power rock, hard rock, melodic metal, AOR and classic heavy metal. There are plenty of catchy melodies to be found ("Never Change Me") and the chemistry music-wise between Kiske and Hansen is obvious from the word go. Just make sure you don't make the mistake of thinking this is more Helloween then let's say Pink Cream 69. About the closest this one comes to Kiske and Hansen's former band is on the live version of Helloween's classic “I Want Out” (only available on the domestic edition).