Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Masterplan
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2017
Length: 63:22
Rating: 3/5
As everyone knows, in 2001 guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch got the boot from the ranks of Hamburg’s power metal veterans Helloween. The reason? They’d been cooking up a joint project, which later turned out to be Masterplan. Their self-titled debut came out just as Helloween were starting to run dry on the songwriting front, and it was proof that with Grapow’s exit they’d lost a big chunk of their brains and, not least, of their stage charisma. Roland is an outstanding guitarist, after all. One of a kind, with a really special approach to playing. A total self-taught player.
Years rolled by. Helloween stayed afloat on the strength of their old glory, even though their post-millennium studio output swings wildly in quality, while Masterplan, despite some very solid records, just can’t seem to win over the bigger crowds. Funny thing is, Helloween recently confirmed the »Pumpkins« reunion tour, where they’ll (with Kiske and Hansen back in a seven-piece lineup) once again cash in nicely. And right before that tour, we get this compilation from Masterplan with a hugely similar title, which makes you think Roland is actually doing Helloween a big promotional favor with it.
Grapow got the idea to re-record a bundle of songs he wrote back when he was a member of Helloween. So we’re talking material from the albums “Pink Bupples Go Ape” (1991), “Chameleon” (1993), “Master Of The Rings” (1994), “The Time Of The Oath” and “The Dark Ride” (2000), which Grapow wrote 100% himself. Interestingly, Helloween didn’t use a single one of Grapow’s ideas from that time on »Better Than Raw« (1998), so you’ll look for songs from that album on »PumpKings« in vain.
That doesn’t really matter. The selection once again proves that Roland Grapow (in terms of ideas, arrangements and composing) is a richly versatile musician. No matter which of the picked songs on this compilation you put under the microscope. They’ve stood the test of time, and listening to these re-recorded, re-played moments from Roland’s creative era with Helloween only confirms it.
What this release brings home, unpleasantly, is that a copy just isn’t better than the original, and that the whole move feels more forced than heartfelt and sincere. It’s not that the material »PumKings« delivers isn’t extremely well produced and brilliantly executed in the studio. It simply doesn’t ignite half as much when you compare it to the studio originals on the Heloween albums. One fact is enough here. Altzi’s vocals, marked by a raspy delivery, are far less suited to reinterpreting the Helloween catalog than Andi Deris’s, Grapow’s contemporary in Helloween. And you can pretty much extend that realization to the whole Hellween catalog. True, Roland has updated some of the structures, and his solos are a charm of their own for this product, but on the other hand, some songs just don’t fly the way you’d expect. Sadly, that includes the excellent Mr. Ego, Time Of the Oath, The Dark Ride and/or Escalation 666. Even three tracks from the superb »Master of the Rings« album show that performing them, the very songs that in 1994 pulled Helloween strongly toward the enigma of hard rock too (thanks above all to Deris joining the band from hard rockers Pink Cream 69), takes far more sensitivity, which Rick Altzi’s at times considerably too coarse voice, sadly, can’t deliver.
So it’s clear that Masterplan really didn’t need this release. It won’t bring them new fans, and at the upcoming shows it’ll maybe bring in a dozen more people than usual. They’d do better to focus ASAP on writing new material and putting out a new studio album, which we’ve been waiting on since 2011. They’re far more convincing there. Especially when you compare Masterplan’s compositions to Helloween’s modern-day songwriting poverty and creative orphanhood.
Masterplan – The Chance (official lyric video):
Lineup
Rock Altzi – vocals
Rolan Grapow – guitar
Axel Mackenrott – keyboards
Jari Kainulainen – bass
Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka – drums
Production
Roland Grapow
Tracklist
01. The Chance
02. Someone’s Crying
03. Mankind
04. Step Out Of Hell
05. Mr. Ego
06. Still We Go
07. Escalation 666
08. The Time Of The Oath
09. Music
10. The Dark Ride
11. Take Me Home
