Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Kiske / Somerville
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2015
Length: 55:32
Rating: 3.5/5
Kiske / Somerville for short is the pairing of Michael Kiske (Unisonic, Place Vendome), former lead voice of Helloween, and Amanda Somerville (Trilium, Avantasia). Two fascinating vocalists who are highly regarded in the metal and hard rock world today. Their studio debut, released in 2010, already kicked up a lot of dust in terms of crowd approval. Five years flew by in a flash, and the key players behind the new album »City of Hopes« are pretty much the same. The main songwriters, arrangers and producers are again members of German heavy metallers Primal Fear, namely German bassist Mat Sinner and Swedish guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Starbreaker).
The primary result is a typically European-sounding album that walks a cunning thin line between hard rock elements and melodic heavy metal. Taken as a whole, it’s pretty much the equivalent of the Allen /Lande project, for which three albums’ worth of music and arrangements also came from none other than Magnus Karlsson. The hyperactive Swede, who’s constantly busy on several fronts at once, brought his trademark approach to arrangements to this album too. You can spot it almost right away in the keyboard arrangements, dressed up with neoclassical touches, while the guitar riffs, which shine in the production and get pushed sharply to the front, are pure German school and could just as easily be used by bands like Unisonic, Place Vendome and the later “Karlsson era” Primal Fear.
As expected, the vocal performance of the two singers takes center stage. Both have a distinctive tone and approach. Kiske blows you away with vocal power that’s stayed undiminished since his golden days with Helloween in the eighties, and with Amanda’s mezzo-soprano binding fascinatingly to Kiske’s voice, it’s no wonder her top-notch vocal talents have been borrowed, on stage and in the studio, by Epica, Kamelot and Avantasia, and by even bigger names like Alice Cooper, Bonnie Tyler and Ian Gillan (Deep Purple), among others. On some tracks Kiske is pushed up in the mix, on others Somerville, but for the most part they double all the vocal lines.
The songs, as expected, combine punch and ultra-melodic catchiness into a credible landscape of 11 tightly chiseled compositions that carry the recognizable trademarks of Karlsson’s school of arranging and songwriting. If you stripped out the metal-spiked riffs, you’d be left with a set of tunes that could run for Eurovision, since the album, in the melodic character of its lead motifs, sounds, as already said, distinctly European. Karlsson also grafted his standard top-notch guitar playing onto the arrangements, adding technically flawless soloing, especially in the mid-eight passages, in the manner of true Swedish-school baroque neoclassical “noodling”. Maybe it’s precisely this predictability and sticking within the lines of the sheet music that occasionally grates, since it gives off the feeling of something you’ve heard and seen used too many times. The songs also have a great buildup of mood from verse to chorus, where, with the bombast and pomp in full swing, the vibe as a rule hits its peak in the chorus melodies. Karlsson and Sinner are extremely experienced and seasoned at what they do. They only had to watch out for one thing: to write compositions that fit the vocal ranges of Somerville and Kiske to the max.
In compositional terms, the album no longer surprises, not at all. Some songs stand out especially for the bombast of their chorus melodies, like Walk On Water, or Rising Up right after it, and Run With A Dream near the end, while then there are moments that feel well-worn, like Salvation, or the opener Ciity Of Heroes and then Open Your Eyes. Anyway, picking the album’s favorites is once again a matter of each individual’s perception. A solid effort, within expectations and without any standouts.
Lineup
Michael Kiske – vocals, backing vocals
Amanda Somerville – vocals, backing vocals
Magnus Karlsson – guitar, keyboards
Mat Sinner – bass, backing vocals
Veronika Lukesova – drums
Production
Magnus Karlsson & Mat Sinner
Track list
1. City of Heroes
2. Walk on Water
3. Rising Up
4. Salvation
5. Lights Out
6. Breaking Neptune
7. Ocean of Tears
8. Open Your Eyes
9. Last Goodbye
10. After The Night Is Over
11. Run With a Dream
12. Right Now
