UNISONIC - Unisonic

And again it didn’t happen. Michael Kiske’s much awaited return to power metal continues to remain awaited. And if the reunion with his former colleague Kai Hansen couldn’t bring Kiske home, I really don’t know what could.

Kiske + Hansen = power metal seemed like a fair estimate before Unisonic was released. While no one was actually expecting a Keeper of the Seven Keys Part IV, a Pink Bubbles Go Ape would have been a reasonable expectation, especially since the single released in January gave out a strong vibe in this direction. Alas, after hearing the album and some further analysis, things appear to be rather different:

Kiske wanted to be in a band so he could work less than he would as a solo artist (his own statement), but didn’t necessarily want to change the AOR-to-pop direction of his post-Helloween creations; Meyer, Ward and Zafirou have been playing pop-ish hard rock since forever and they’re too old to surprise anyone anymore; and Kai Hansen, who was the great metallic hope of this whole endeavour, came to Unisonic exactly to do something different than what he was doing usually, so (bad luck!) not heavy metal.

And so Unisonic barely has a couple of more vigorous songs that are worthy of note for metal fans - the title song and My Sanctuary. The problem with the others lies not only in the shyness of the metal element. Some are a stark reminder that the authors’ song writing genius is way past its prime (that goes for Hansen, too), and the ones that are lucky enough to get an interesting idea are dragged down by unfortunate arrangements, which raises a serious question about the band’s cohesion. While they may be pleasant to listen to, they fail to excel in originality, inventiveness or memorability.

The album is at least unconvincing, and the band seems like a project of little relevance, same as Place Vendome (in fact the line-up and musical direction are largely the same). After this well-deserved break, Hansen will return to Gamma Ray. And most likely, Kiske will never return to power metal except as a guest on Avantasia albums. And this is something I really wish I were wrong about.

Klawz Nota: 8