Unisonic

Unisonic were a German melodic hard rock and heavy metal band formed in 2009, bringing together musicians with long service in the European scene. The initial line-up featured vocalist Michael Kiske — the voice of Helloween on the records that defined power metal, Keeper of the Seven Keys I and II — Swiss guitarist Mandy Meyer, formerly of Krokus and Asia, bassist and producer Dennis Ward of Pink Cream 69, and drummer Kosta Zafiriou, also of Pink Cream 69. The event that transformed the project came in 2011, with the arrival of guitarist Kai Hansen. Co-founder of Helloween, author of much of that band's classic repertoire and later the leader of Gamma Ray, Hansen was sharing a stage and a studio with Kiske again for the first time in around two decades. For European melodic metal audiences it was a reunion many had considered unlikely, given the distance Kiske had kept from the genre for years. The debut album, Unisonic, appeared in 2012 amid high expectations. The sound landed closer to direct melodic hard rock than to the fast power metal the pair had helped create — a choice that divided opinion, but which the band maintained was deliberate. Light of Dawn followed in 2014, heavier and closer to the territory fans had expected, and is generally regarded as the stronger of the two. The trajectory was interrupted by a larger turn of events. In 2016 and 2017 Kiske and Hansen agreed to take part in Helloween's Pumpkins United reunion, which placed three vocalists and the band's historic line-up side by side. That commitment, which became a permanent new phase for Helloween, left Unisonic on indefinite hiatus. Two albums was all that remained — but Unisonic served a specific role in German metal history: it was the reunion that reopened the door between Kiske and his past, and without it the Helloween reunion would probably never have happened.