Geoff Tate, Masterplan, and Inner Vitriol Serve Up a Night for the Old Guard at Orto Bar
Geoff Tate’s Operation Mindcrime: The Final Chapter, Masterplan, Inner Vitriol
Tuesday, 14 April 2026
Orto Bar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Due to the complicated situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the oil shortage, the coastal crew I was part of that evening missed the openers, the Italians Inner Vitriol. Jokes aside, the real reason for the delay is quite tragicomic. We set off in the tour van of a local rock band (who will shortly be holding a ‘Release Party’ for their new album in Dobravljah near Ajdovščina — Google them yourself, I’m not doing free advertising). When I climbed in, the owner carefully (his words) slid the door shut, and it literally came off in his hands. The repair took exactly as long as Inner Vitriol‘s set.
Masterplan, the brainchild of Roland Grapow, were the next big thing in power metal back in 2003. After the EP Enlighten Me they dropped their self-titled debut and blew the cobwebs off a stale scene. Adding a touch of melancholy, AOR sounds, and the masterful vocals of Jorn Lande, the two Helloween defectors — guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch — together with keyboard prodigy Janne Wirman (then of Children of Bodom) created a timeless album that laid the foundations for what could have been a star-studded career. But as tends to happen, things didn’t quite pan out that way, and so here we were in 2026 watching Masterplan at Orto Bar as the support act for Geoff Tate.
A veteran of the music business and the band’s only original member, Roland knows exactly what the crowd came for. So they played no fewer than seven tracks from the debut, the new Chase the Light, and a handful of singles from albums in between. The Ortič was nicely packed when the guys, battling a heap of technical problems (dead monitors), ran through the aforementioned Chase the Light in what felt like a glorified soundcheck. Then they got serious with Enlighten Me and kept the energy up all the way to the end with Heroes and Crawling From Hell. You can check the full setlist here.
What I’d heard of singer Rick Altzi‘s studio work hadn’t exactly blown me away. So I was pleasantly surprised by how he handled the demanding vocal legacy up on the Orto Bar stage. Brilliantly. Roland covered the upper registers effectively, while otherwise he impressively rasped through his own convincing take on Lande‘s glorious vocal. The band is, of course, a collection of top-tier musicians (I felt a pang of nostalgia watching bassist Jari and thinking back to his Stratovarius days), and the whole thing sounded excellent. With two reservations from my end. The volume was set at room level — standing at the mixing desk you could hold a perfectly normal conversation with the person next to you. And then there was the vocal delivery on Heroes, originally a duet between Jorn Lande and Michael Kiske, with Roland this time taking on the Kiske part — the whole thing sounded like two drunk mates singing into a tape recorder. It really would have been smarter to swap that one out for, say, the latest single Through the Storm. All things considered, though — a solid gig, thumbs up and hats off!
The evening’s headliner was former Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate. Over the years I’ve regularly read horror stories online about events that unfolded toward the end of his tenure with the band and the legal battles that followed his dismissal — not to mention accounts describing the dire state of that once-iconic voice.
On this tour, Geoff and his international lineup (three guitarists, rhythm section, plus a keyboardist/backing vocalist) perform the metal community’s beloved concept album Operation:Mindcrime (1988) in its entirety. I don’t personally share that enthusiasm, but you’ve got to go and check out a legendary vocalist if he bothers to make it all the way to Ljubljana and — as he himself pointed out — the smallest stage of his career.
The story of junkie assassin Nikki unfolded before our eyes and into our ear canals without a hitch or nasty surprise. For the second time that evening, the lead vocalist caught me off guard in the best way. Geoff is full of veteran vocal tricks, but with the help of backing singer Claudia McCarthy and an enthusiastic crowd, the whole thing sounded very respectable. The room volume hadn’t changed, but the sound was clean and every nuance of the guitar passages came through clearly. Geoff and Claudia also made an effort on the theatrical front, most noticeably during Suite Sister Mary.
The second half of the set drew a roar from the crowd — Geoff had been saving the biggest hits and a few treats for that part, including the sweetest of the lot, Queen of the Reich, where he put up a fairly solid fight with its insanely demanding vocal lines. Silent Lucidity needs no special mention — goosebumps. Full setlist here.
The seven-piece band took care of every sonic detail. I can imagine the financial slice of the pie for a backing band isn’t exactly generous, but sharing a stage with a legend of American prog metal probably makes the stale sandwiches and warm beer go down a lot easier.
To reiterate — both performances exceeded my expectations by a fair margin. The only thing that got me down was the underwhelming volume, which meant the real metal punch was missing. Even during Masterplan‘s set I kept reaching for the term “dad rock,” except what we witnessed that evening was prog power for dads.
What followed was a pleasant get-together with friends, acquaintances, and members of Masterplan. A shame Jari Kainulainen didn’t show his face — I had plenty I wanted to talk to him about, since he’s one of my all-time favourite bassists. Next time.
The tour van held up for the journey home — here’s hoping it makes it to Dobravljah as well.
Text: Igorac
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
