Kiske-Somerville – City of Heroes

Kiske-Somerville is the collaboration between former Helloween singer Michael Kiske (now with Unisonic) and Trillium singer Amanda Somerville.  Both singers have also worked with Avantasia as well as separately on various projects.  The pair released the album “Kiske/Somerville” back in 2010, and finally found time in their schedules to get together to work on a second album.  Finally five years after the first album was released, “City of heroes” is here.

My first reaction on listening to this was “Holy sh*t this is good”.  It’s a huge step up from the first album (which was already a very good album).  Right from the start it impresses – the music is great and of course you have two immensely talented singers.

The first track is “City of heroes” which has been released as a video – check it out below and I think you’ll see why I was immediately impressed.

The second song on the album is “Walk on water” which is the other song that has been released as a video..

Amanda Somerville’s beautiful clean vocals work really well with Michael Kiske’s distinctive vocals.  There’s a mix vocally – sometimes they’ll sing separately and alternate, and at other times, particularly for the choruses, both will sing together.  The results are fantastic.
It’s not just the vocals that are great – you’ve got great songs that are really well played so the music has a nice powerful and clear sound.  Most of the songwriting was done by Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner) and Magnus Karlsson (Starbreaker, Primal Fear) with Sander Gommans formerly of After Forever and Amanda Somerville writing “Breaking Neptune”.  The mix from Jacob Hansen is excellent work – everything is perfectly clear and you never feel that either music or vocals drowns out the others.

This is a great album – in fact I’ve already ordered my copy.

“City of heroes” will be released on 17th April 2015

Tracklisting:

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

Bonus DVD
City of Heroes (videoclip)
Walk on Water (videoclip)
Documentary “Making of the Album”

Musicians
Lead & Backing Vocals by Michael Kiske & Amanda Somerville
Guitars & Keyboards: Magnus Karlsson
Bass & Backing Vocals: Mat Sinner
Drums: Veronika Lukesova