On December 20th, Unisonic - featuring former Helloween members Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske - performed at the Knockout Festival 2014 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Fan-filmed video of the band performing "For The Kingdom" from their new album Light Of Dawn is available below:

Check out BraveWords scribe Mark Gromen's review of the Knockout Festival here.

Following is an excerpt from a recent interview with Unisonic guitarist Kai Hansen and bassist/producer Dennis Ward conducted by Japan's metal bible, Burrn Magazine. They discuss the evolution of the band's sound and vocalist Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween) between their self-titled debut and the new Light Of Dawn:

Dennis: "Unisonic is evolving in a good way. When we started Unisonic with Mandy, Kosta and me (and Michael), we had no idea how the band would become because Michael was very clear about how the music that he sings should be. We didn’t even know if we could ever achieve whatever the music he was talking about. But since we are a rock band with a guitarist, we decided to start with rock music and see how it goes from there. After Kai joined the band, our direction became more focused to guitar-oriented sound and more metal, and songs definitely became faster."

Kai: "But such songs didn’t make it to the first album."

Dennis: "No, it didn’t."

Kai: "Because we had a restriction. We didn’t want to make Michael feel uncomfortable right from the beginning. So we didn’t go to the metal direction, and started with what we already had."

Dennis: "Then, Michael agreed to be involved in faster metal songs."

Kai: "That's right. After singing (Helloween classic) 'March Of Time' for a couple of times live, Michael said to me, 'It was wonderful! It was fun! Don't worry, if you want to write a song like that, just do it!' It was a moment that I felt 'YES!!!'"

Go to this location for more from the interview.

Unisonic performed in Bremen, Germany on September 27th supporting Edguy. The band's official fanclub, Souls Alive, has posted soundcheck footage featuring the new song "Throne Of The Dawn". They have also posted footage from the actual show:

The setlist on the night was as follows:

"For The Kingdom"
"Exceptional"
"Star Rider"
"Your Time Has Come"
"King For A Day"
"When The Deed Is Done"
"Throne Of The Dawn"
"I Want Out"
"Unisonic"

Live photo by Mark Gromen