Metal Reviews

This is excellent news. After the mediocre and poor "MK II" I am now confident that they will burst out a killer album. Mike was never a good choice for the band (IMO), even though he is a good singer. Here's what Blabbermouth has to say:


"According to the long-running Dutch rock/metal magazine Aardschok, Norwegian singer Jorn Lande has rejoined MASTERPLAN, the band led by former HELLOWEEN guitarist Roland Grapow.

Lande left the band in May 2006, citing "musical differences" between the vocalist and the rest of the band, particularly then-drummer Uli Kusch (who has since also left MASTERPLAN). During the songwriting process for the group's third album, it became increasingly apparent that the other members of the band had different visions and plans for the group's musical direction. While Jorn allegedly wanted MASTERPLAN to follow a more melodic path, the rest of the band apparently wanted to return to the metallic roots of their debut album.

Vocalist Mike DiMeo (RIOT, THE LIZARDS) announced his departure from MASTERPLAN in January 2009 after recording just one studio album with the group — 2007's "MK II"."

There's also a new Jorn album coming up later this year, entitled "Spirit Black". Some songtitles are "Road Of The Cross", "Black Heart" and "Rock 'N Roll Angel".

This really is great news. And by the song names it sounds like they may be going back to the sound of the first album which is what I've been hoping for all this time.

The song titles are from Jorn's new solo album silly!

Is this confirmed or just rumors?

The official Masterplan site says that more news will be put there soon about their new singer. And that everyone should expect big things coming around. And at the bottom of that post it says that the band is NOT searching for a NEW singer, guitarist, drummer or bass-player.

That could be like something funny. Like while the band has been searching for a new singer, they are still holding on to the rest or something. OR it could be like the band has not been searching for a NEW singer...

I think that's confirmation enough!

Pffft! He's just a singer. His presence has little to do with good songwriting.

And I thought MKII was a great album. I really don't understand why so many complained about it. It's better than Aeronautics.

I don't like anything Masterplan has released so farr.
Imho, Lande's too good for Masterplan.

Ok Mr. "Ohbarlowisbackinicedearththisisthegreatestnewsever".


J/K

Did I even post here when that happened? If so...pffft!

My comment was in response to the sort of thinking that Jorn is back so Masterplan will somehow be good again.

Fuck. It seems that this may not be true after all. The band says on their site that the statement from Aardshock magazine doesn't come from them, and that they will post more news about their new singer soon...

I think "MK II" is a bit weak because of the vocals and the songs themselves. Jorn had a much more passionate way of singing and he was definetely more powerful. Mike made the band sound a bit more generic. He sometimes drowned in the music and sometimes he didn't sound that emotional in my opinion. The songs also had much more hooks on "Aeronautics" and the self-titled. They felt more focused and simply more Masterplan-ish, while on "MK II" I got the feeling that some parts of the songs were forced. Like the singing on "Warrior's Cry" or the guitar parts in general on tracks like "Warching The World" or "Call The Gypsy". The only songs that sounded a bit more "comfortable" to me were "Lost And Gone" and "Keeps Me Burning". From the rest I get a feeling of a product made in studio rather than music that is alive. I just don't think DiMeo was a good match for them and that the band may have suffered from the loss of Uli too.

I had a sneaky stupid feeling Michael Kiske would be the new singer. But I'm glad it looks like Jorn is back, he should never have left in the first place.

Holy shit it's Rad.

sup

Here's what Roland Grapow has to say for the moment:

"About the singer situation?

Sorry for the silence, but we really don't try to create any hype out of it. We would love to tell you the new line-up already some month ago, but we promised not to say anything so far.
It has reasons, which doesn't have anything to do with Masterplan or the current line up. It is more a contract or a business kind of thing. So don’t blame me or the Band for it!

The new line-up had already a meeting 9 weeks ago and finally again last week for checking and working on the new song material. We had also many nice talks and ideas for the future.

Recording start is finally this weekend in my studio in SK! Album mix is planned for the beginning of August. We're expecting the album release in late Autumn, or let’s say...when it’s finished "

Roland

For anyone who had doubts now it's official.



At least now we'll hear some good music with Jorn instead of his weak solo albums.

YES! This is awesome news... even though everyone has known about it several months now.

And Jorn's solo albums aren't bad.

That's great "news". Their debut album is one of my favorite albums to come out in the 2000's.

He'd better reform Ark that go back to Masterbore...

Ark are fantastic, but that is another discussion for another day.

Jorn back in Masterplan is good news, as most have pointed out. While it doesn't mean that the music will all of a sudden be much better, Jorn's vocals alone will raise the quality of Masterplan. Plus, Jorn has more input than the average vocalist, so whoever wrote his presence off completely needs to reconsider that statement.