The Unity is a new group that has been put together by Gamma Ray members Michael Ehré (drums) and Henjo Richter (guitar). Richter has been part of the Hamburg power metal outfit for some twenty years, while Ehré’s CV includes – prior to his joining the Gamma Ray fold in 2012 – renowned names such as Firewind, Uli Jon Roth and Unisonic. To complete the band they recruited Italian vocalist Gianba Manenti, guitarist Stef E, bassist Jogi Sweers and keyboardist Sascha Onnen. There is just one word that sum up this album, and that is “class”, and this albums just reeks of it.
What we have here is melodic hard rock/heavy metal that occasionally provides nods to Gamma Ray (unsurprisingly), Helloween and Rhapsody, with twelve superb numbers that just cry out to be turned up a little bit more and for the listener to join in the chorus. If I was to pick just one song as a stand out then it would have to be the hugely impressive “Firesign” where each of the band has an opportunity to shine, and Gianba shows time and again that he is one of the most impressive singers in the genre with an incredible range and control, while the line in the chorus “Because there is no fucking way out” is surely going to be screamed at the band when they on tour later this year.
Self-produced, I found that I kept being reminded of the sound of Whitesnake’s classic ‘1987’ album, the first CD I ever owned that was DDD, as this is immense. This may be a new name to the genre, but the guys behind it have been around for a while and know what they need to do make this essential, and they have done just that. From poppy rock through to melodic metal, this is one heck of an album.
