Masteplan / Masterplan (2003)

1. Spirit Never Die

2. Kind Hearted Light

3. Soulburn

4. Heroes (Feat. Michael Kiske)

5. Into The Light

6. Through Thick And Thin (Bonus Track)

7. Crawling From Hell

8. Crystal Night

9. The Kid Rocks On (Bonus Track)

10. Sail On

11. When Love Comes Close

After they were fired from their old band, Roland and Uli formed their own band, Masterplan. I was really curious what kind of music that they were heading. Weiki claimed that Roland and Uli had a lot of influence in their last album, "The Dark Ride". They wanted to play some heavy and modern music. Well, this is the answer from them. I was really surprised by this album. The vocal, Jorn Lande, is definitely the one making this album very unique and not a typical power metal band. He has really strong and deep voice, often describe as David Coverdale type. In fact, in some songs, he really sounds like Coverdale. 

As you see, the track list is Japanese edition and very different from other places. "Enlighten Me" was only released as a single and not included in the album. The order is very different as well. Musically, it has some typical power metal songs such as Tracks 1, 2, 4, and 10. Especially, track 4 which features Michael Kiske is a highlight of this album. Nevertheless, the ones that make this band unique are the songs such as tracks 3, 5, 6, and 11. Those songs are very dramatic and really feature Jorn's voice. Another surprise for me was Roland's guitar play. He was known as a one of Yngwie's follower, but his guitar play in this album shows more standard rock/metal influence. When I watched their live, he was playing Les-Paul guitars. 

As a conclusion, it was a high quality metal album. I think this band appeals to not only power metal fans but also metal fans in general. The album shows their guts to overcome the tragedy and hope for the future. It is really ironic, but two departures of important members from Helloween created another two great metal bands, Gamma Ray and Masterplan.

☆☆☆☆