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Unisonic: Light of Dawn
Unisonic Light of Dawn CD Album Review

Unisonic: Light of Dawn

Melodic Metal
4.5/5.0

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Pure Steel Records
Words: Craig Hartranft    Added: 25.07.2014

As promised with their For The Kingdom EP this Spring, Unisonic delivers their second album, Light of Dawn, and it's largely what everybody was hoping for from this European supergroup. If you don't recall Unisonic is Michael Kiske (Helloween, Place Vendome, et al) on vocals, Mandy Meyer (Asia, Gotthard, Krokus, et al) on guitar, Kai Hansen (Helloween, Gamma Ray, et al) on guitar, and from Pink Cream 69, Dennis Ward (bass) and Kosta Zafiriou (drums).

Unisonic Light of Dawn Band Photo

Unisonic: same as the last picture.

Besides being super fraggin' talented, these guys are geniuses, like Wile E. Coyote super genius, at twisting together melodic hard rock and heavy metal into interesting and entertaining super songs. Superlatives aside, this album simply rocks with groove for AOR hard rock fans and, for the metal heads, also offer plenty of head banging glory.

Proof of that comes at the start, after the intro, with Your Time Has Come, simply melodic power metal in it's purest form. But then the twisting, bending, and manipulating begins as Unisonic blurs the lines of hard rock and metal. Night of the Long Knives and Not Gonna Take Anymore, for example, have the big heavy metal riffs and stinging licks, yet over the blessed groove and melody that tickles your ears. Then there's Exceptional where the blend is so meticulously smooth, it's equally menacing and entertaining. The song moves just as much by Kiske vocal arrangements as it does with bass and drum line. I'm guessing Ward and Zafiriou love playing this song. (Listen below.)

Things once more lean to the metal side, between traditional heavy and power metal, with the swift Find Shelter, a bit grittier Throne of Dawn, and the metal anthem When the Deed Is Done. A true metal ballad ends the album with You and I, a steady pace, more gentle passionate vocals from Kiske and, of course, the requisite soaring solos. I'll admit Blood and Manhunter fell a bit flat on these ears, but considering the overall strength of the album, it would not be fair to simply call them filler. I suspect they'll grow on me eventually. Of course, the production is brilliant, with Dennis Ward behind the knobs what else would you expect. Light of Dawn is another winner for Unisonic: melodic metal at it's finest, but what else would you expect from this talented supergroup. Easily recommended.


Unisonic - Exceptional (Official)





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In Short

Light of Dawn is another winner for Unisonic; melodic metal at it's finest. Easily recommended.

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