Greetings – and welcome to Sentinel Daily! Thanks for taking part in our end-of-year festivities! First off, please tell us who you are and what function you fulfil within The Unity… “I´m Michael Ehré, I´m playing drums with the band”.

Great to have you with us! Your new album Rise came out a little while ago now, you’ve been out on tour – have you been pleased with the reception of the album, from both critics and fans alike so far? “I was overwhelmed! The reviews from critics and fans were fantastic. Our new album opened a lot of new doors for us as a band”.

And apart from the release of the album, how has 2018 been for The Unity? “It was a year full of work. We started with the songwriting in January, the album production followed in April. It was a tough schedule but in the end we made it and it was worth it as we entered the German Album Charts and went on tour with Axel Rudi Pell immediately after the release of Rise”.

Good to hear – we’ve certainly been enjoying the album here at Sentinel Daily headquarters. In his review of the album, our writer Gavin Strickmann thought he detected traces of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham in the melody of Better Day– is he right? Are the band secret Wham fans? And seriously, how hard is it in 2018 to come up with truly original music? “(laughing)…no, to be honest we´re not Wham fans. But you know it´s hard, no, impossible to create new music. Almost everything is said and done in music, we all only have twelve tones and certain rhythms which we can chose from. It was never our intention to be the most innovative band on the planet. The music has to come from our hearts, that´s all that matters”.

Indeed – and what was in your hearts in 2018 was pretty good! More generally, how do you think 2018 has been for rock and metal? “It’s hard to say… I´m not sure if anything changed compared to 2017 or the years before. All I can say is that it´s not easy to sell CDs nowadays. The people are not willing to pay for music anymore, which is a shame. To be honest, I have no idea if and how this will change and what that means for music in the future”.

What albums in this field by other artists have you enjoyed this year? “I like the new Judas Priest album Firepower and the new Leather album”.

Yep, Firepower seems to be a firm favourite whoever we speak to! Now what about the world in general – do you think 2018 was a good year for humanity? “No, absolutely not! It´s still a shame what´s going on in the world. It´s hard for me to stand the daily news…”

Let’s not go down that road any further then.. So, looking forward now to 2019 – what does next year hold in store for the band? “We will play festivals and start with the writing of new material for our third album. We also have some other plans but it´s too early to talk about it”.

OK -but it sounds like you’ll have plenty to get your teeth into! We’ll have to reconvene next year for a further chat to get updated. We’re approaching the holiday season – where will you be spending the Christmas period and what will be your celebration drink of choice? “2018 was a tough one and I´m really looking forward to spending my holidays at home doing nothing but celebrating. When it comes to drinking I´m probably the most boring musician in the whole world, (laughs)…I don´t drink that much alcohol, almost no alcohol at all. I prefer Coca Cola…isn’t that boring?”

Not at all – each to their own! And of course that means more for old soaks like me so we have ourselves a genuine win-win situation here! Last question -Anything else you’d like to say to the readers of Sentinel Daily? “I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year! Thanks for your support and keep metal alive!”

Thanks – we’ll do our best!