Kiske, Michael

Before joining Helloween , Michael Kiske was a member of the school team Ill Prophecy (The Evil Sign), in which, apart from him, participated Karsten Nagel , Patrick Hampe , Ulrich Schulz and Raico Ebel. In 1986, the team made a demo tape, interesting because of the five tracks on it, two were later recorded by Michael as part of Helloween : A Little Time and You Always Walk Alone .

At the age of 18, Kiske received an invitation from the already experienced international success of the power metal band Helloween , the vocalist in which was up to this point Kai Hansen . Hansen was experiencing certain difficulties from combining the duties of a rhythm guitarist and vocalist, and this circumstance convinced the band members of the need to search for a new vocalist. In the fall of 1986, Marcus Grosskopf heard about the vocalist of the band Ill Prophecy , who made the first invitation to Michael Kiske, which he, however, rejected, listening to the first long play of the group called Walls of Jericho ( 1985 ). After talking with one of the leaders of Helloween Michael Weikat Kiske, he accepted the invitation and joined Helloween . Together with Michael Kiske, the Helloween group from November 1986 to January 1987 worked on the album Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 1 ( 1987 ), which is unanimously recognized as one of the best albums in its history and with which the birth of power style metal Already on this album, Kiske showed his creative abilities. In particular, his authorship belongs to the composition of A Little Time . In 1988, with Michael Kiske, the Helloween group recorded the second part of the dilogy - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 2 , enthusiastically accepted all over the world, then a live album, released under various names in Europe, USA and Japan: respectively, Live In The UK , I Want Out Live , Keepers Live ( 1989 ) and two experimental albums - Pink Bubbles Go Ape ( 1991 ) and Chameleon ( 1993 ). The last two were pretty cool accepted by the public and were not so commercially successful, especially Chameleon . For musical and personal reasons, at the end of 1993, Michael Kiske left the band. The place of vocalist in January 1994 was taken by Andi Deris from the hard rock team Pink Cream 69 , who is the current vocalist of Helloween .

According to rumors, in the same 1993, Michael Kiske received an invitation from the legendary Iron Maiden group to take the place of Bruce Dickinson, who was taking solo career. Kiske himself answered these rumors:

"This is just a rumor. Of course, I thought about it myself, Maiden was always something grand for me, even when I was a teenager, and since then my attitude towards them has not changed. But I don’t suit them musically. Of course I could sing these songs, I have beautiful long hair, but it's just not mine. " (taken from http://www.perfectgentleman.com/articles/Kiske.html )

In August 1996 , almost three years after leaving Helloween , Kiske released his first solo album, Instant Clarity . Kai Hansen from Gamma Ray and Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden took an active part in the work on this album. Kiske's second solo album, Readiness to Sacrifice , was released in Korea and Japan in 1999 , and in Europe in 2001 . Kiske himself attributes both of these albums to pop music , although they feature compositions in various genres.

In 2001, Kiske received an invitation from the leader of the group Edguy Tobias Zammet to join the Avantasia project he was producing, which he accepted on condition that he would perform under the pseudonym Ernie . Indeed, this name, Ernie, is present on the reverse side of the CD of the first part of the metal opera Avantasia , while the second CD shows the real name. This is explained, most likely, by Kiske’s reluctance to have his name somehow associated with the heavy metal style.

At the end of 2001, Kiske assembled a team consisting of: Michael Kiske, Sandro Giampetro , Juergen Spiegel, Aldo Harms . When signing the contract, the group took the name Supared and in January 2003 released the eponymous album. The compositions of this album have a modern rock sound and song structure that is different from both the Kiske solo albums and the Helloween albums. The album had no commercial success, and in April 2004, Kiske disbanded the group, again stating that he was leaving the rock scene forever. The material of this album is interesting because it determined the new turn of the musical creativity of Michael Kiske in the direction of alternative rock.

In 2005, Kiske was invited by Dennis Ward , leader of Pink Cream 69 , and Andi Deris' former team to the project Place Vendome . In addition to Ward and Kiske, Uwe Reitenauer and Kosta Zafiriou , two other members of Pink Cream 69 , and Günther Verno from Vanden Plas took part in the project. In this line-up, the album of the same name, Place Vendome , was recorded, in which five of the eleven compositions belong to the authorship of Kiske.

In the same 2005, Helloween recorded the album Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy , on which, in the composition of Occasion Avenue, one can hear the sampled voice of Michael Kiske. According to rumors, Andi Deris offered to connect Kiske to the process of recording this album, which was perceived by other Helloween members as a betrayal.

In 2006, Michael Kiske recorded a new solo album, Kiske , continuing the musical lines of his solo albums, but received restrained ratings from critics and fans.

On May 9, 2008 , Kiske released a new solo album called Past In Different Way , on which the compositions he wrote for Helloween were processed in an acoustic manner. According to some critics, the weak point of this album is the arrangement of the old Helloween compositions in an acoustic key without any new readings. However, Kiske’s voice didn’t change even 20 years later.

In 2008-2010 Kiske took part in the recording of three new albums of the group Avantasia . In 2010, together with Amanda, Somerville recorded the album Kiske / Somerville .

In 2009, there has been a new turn in the musical career of Michael Kiske. In the process of recording two Place Vendome albums, he became close to Dennis Ward and Costa Zafirio, in whom, he said, he found two kindred musical souls. This trio was joined by guitarist Mendy Meyer ( Krokus ). So the Unisonic project was born - the first after Supared case of full participation of Michael Kiske in a rock band since he left Helloween in late 1993. In March 2011, Kai Hansen joined the group. The debut album of the band Unisonic was released March 30, 2012.

On April 17, 2015, a new Kiske / Somerville album will be released .

In 2016, it became known that Michael, together with Kai Hansen, again joined Helloween to take part in the "Pumpkins United" tour.

In comparison with the manner of Kai Hansen , Kiske has a deeper and more lyrical voice. Unlike typical heavy metal performers, Michael Kiske can hold very high notes with a wide range of 3.5 octaves. His style is so different from Hansenovsky that some fans and critics have become unconditional supporters of it, comparing with the style of Jeff Tate and even early, as a part of Samson , Bruce Dickinson . For some fans, Kiske remains their favorite singer on Helloween , while others prefer the more traditional heavy metal style of Kai Hansen and Andi Deris . The Era of Kiske in Helloween had a powerful influence on many performers who tried to copy and imitate his vocal style.

Solo projects

Michael Kiske

• Instant Clarity ( 1996 )
  • Always (EP) ( 1996 )
  • The Calling (EP) ( 1996 )
• Readiness to Sacrifice ( 1999 )

Kiske

• Kiske ( 2006 )
• Past in Different Ways ( 2008 )

As a part of rock bands

Helloween

• Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 ( 1987 )
• Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2 ( 1988 )
• Live in the UK ( 1989 )
• Pink Bubbles Go Ape ( 1991 )
• Chameleon ( 1993 )

Avantasia

• The Metal Opera ( 2001 )
• The Metal Opera Part II ( 2002 )
  • Lost in Space Part II (EP) ( 2007 )
• The Scarecrow ( 2008 )
• The Wicked Symphony ( 2010 )
• Angel of Babylon ( 2010 )
• The Mystery of Time ( 2013 )
• Ghostlights ( 2016 )

SupaRed

• SupaRed ( 2003 )

Place Vendome

• Place Vendome ( 2005 )
• Streets of Fire ( 2009 )
• Thunder in the Distance ( 2013 )
• Close to the Sun (2017)

Kiske / Somerville

• Kiske / Somerville ( 2010 )
• City Of Heroes ( 2015 )

Unisonic

• Unisonic ( 2012 )
  • Ignition (EP) ( 2012 )
• Light of Dawn (2014)
  • For the Kingdom (EP) ( 2014 )

As a guest guest

• Gamma Ray - Land of the Free ( 1995 )
• Timo Tolkki - Hymn to Life ( 2002 )
• Masterplan - Masterplan ( 2003 )
• Aina - Days of Rising Doom ( 2004 )
• Thalion - Another Sun ( 2004 )
• Tribuzy - Execution ( 2005 )
• Edguy - Superheroes (EP) ( 2005 )
• Indigo Dying - Indigo Dying ( 2007 )
• Revolution Renaissance - New Era ( 2008 )
• Trick Or Treat - Tin Soldiers ( 2009 )
• Gamma Ray - To the Metal (2010)
• Tomorrow's Outlook - 34613 (2012)
• Gamma Ray - Skeletons & Majesties Live (2012)
• Avalon - The Land of New Hope (2013)
• Infinita Symphonia - Infinita Symphonia (2013)
• Starchild - Starchild (2014)

In 1996, Michael Kiske published a philosophical essay entitled “Art and Materialism” ( Kunst und Materialismus ). Since 2004 , Kiske’s personal website has been running, which presents his philosophical writings written in German.

Family Kiske: Single, no children. Brother Rudolf Kiske (02/18/1973) - the owner of the company for the production of lamps. Sister Anora Kimbrig (06/12/1963), nee Kiske. Father Friedrich Kiske (11/26/1944), famous banker in Hamburg, member of the Hamburg Council (Die Verwaltung Hamburgs). Mother Elena Passioner (12/30/1947)

Michael Kiske height : 180cm (5.11)

Weight: 1987 —- 64 kg., 1992 —- 77 kg., 1996 —- 98 kg., 2010 —- 92 kg.

• The official website of Michael Kiske (him.) (English)
• Where Wishes Fly - Official Michael Kiske fan club (Eng.)
• Personal site of Michael Kiske (him.)
• Unisonic official website (eng.)