Сегодня вдруг вспомнилась одна супергруппа, которая, после двух очень успешных дисков (Unisonic, 2012 и Light of Dawn, 2014), почему-то перестала выпускать альбомы. Впрочем, причина понятна — состав группы настолько звёздный, что музыканты постоянно востребованы в других проектах. Сами посудите: Kai Hansen (ex Helloween / Gamma Ray), Michael Kiske (ex Helloween), Mandy Meyer (ex Asia, Krokus and Gotthard), Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) и Kosta Zafiriou (Pink Cream 69). Но тот пауэр, который они успели записать вместе, очень зажигает!
Vocalist Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween), bassist Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) and drummer Kosta Zafiriou (ex-Pink Cream 69) had already worked together in the AOR project Place Vendome. After the release of Place Vendome’s second album, Streets of Fire in 2009, the aforementioned musicians decided to work together and form a new band. Dennis Ward suggested the recruitment of Swiss guitarist Mandy Meyer (Asia, Gotthard, Krokus). Mandy Meyer commented on the band’s name: «There were so many ideas for a name and everybody liked Unisonic at the end. It fits to our band. United musicians from different backgrounds and countries». Unisonic began their first tour in June 2010, playing some warm-up shows in Germany and performing at the Sweden Rock Festival and the Masters of Rock Festival. These were the first live shows of Michael Kiske since his departure from Helloween in 1993.
Another former Helloween member, guitarist Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray), joined the band in March 2011. In January 2012, the band released its first EP titled Ignition, through EarMusic (Edel AG), together with a video for the song Unisonic. The band’s self-titled debut album was released on 30 March 2012 and entered several international music charts, scoring the highest points on the Finnish albums chart, Japanese albums chart, German albums chart and Swedish albums chart.
Unisonic embarked on their first world tour in May 2012 playing in South America and in various European music festivals, such as Masters of Rock, Hellfest, Rock Hard and Gods of Metal among others. The second half of the tour included concerts in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Russia, Spain and Germany.
The band’s second EP, For the Kingdom, came out in May 2014, the video for the song «Exceptional» followed in July, while their second album, Light of Dawn, was released on 1 August 2014. Light of Dawn entered several international music charts, scoring the highest entries on the Finnish albums chart, German albums chart, Swiss albums chart, Czech albums chart and Japanese albums chart.
The band embarked on a summer festival tour in July 2014, performing at Masters Of Rock, Leyendas del Rock, Moscow Metal Meeting and Bang Your Head among others. A Japanese and European tour together with Edguy followed, while the band’s final show was at the Knock Out Festival in December 2014.
On 5 August 2016 the band performed their first show at Wacken Open Air, which was recorded and released under the title Live in Wacken on 21 July 2017. On 6 September 2016 Kosta Zafiriou announced his retirement as a professional drummer, remaining only in his job as Unisonic’s manager.
