Masterplan

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Masterplan is a Power Metal band formed by Uli Kusch and Roland Grapow in 2001 after the pair were fired from Helloween for trying to go in a Darker and Edgier direction. They recruited Jorn Lande of the then recently broken up ARK to sing for them and released their self-titled debut in 2003. At that point, while Children of Bodom keyboardist Janne "Warman" Wirman contributed during a few recording sessions, Kusch, Grapow and Lande were the only full members. When it came time to tour, they recruited keyboardist Alex Mackenrott and then-former and current Iron Savior bassist Jan-Soren Eckert, both of whom remain as permanent members to this day. With their now full line-up, they released Aeronautics in 2005.

However, the band had some problems in the backgroud, not long after the release of Aeronautics, the band had a falling out with Lande, who cited Creative Differences for his departure, and, not too long after that, the rest of the band had another falling out with Uli Kusch, who quit for undisclosed reasons. Still, the band soldiered on and recruited vocalist Mike DiMeo and drummer Mike Terrana to release MK II in 2007. They also announced that they were working on a fourth album around this time.

Despite Fan Dumb complaints of DiMeo, things seemed steady for a while, but there were soon rumors that DiMeo was going to leave. These rumors were confirmed in January of 2009. They went on without a known vocalist until July of 2009, when it was announced that Jorn Lande had rejoined. Their fourth album, Time to be King, was released on May 21st, 2010.

Current Members:

• Vocals: Jorn Lande (2001-2006, 2009-)
• Guitar: Roland Grapow (2001-)
• Bass: Jan-Soren Eckert (2003-)
• Drums: Mike Terrana (2006-)
• Keyboard: Alex Mackenrott (2003-)

Former Members:

• Vocals: Mike DiMeo (2006-2009)
• Drums: Uli Kusch (2001-2006)

Discography:

• Masterplan (2003)
• Aeronautics (2005)
• MK II (2007)
• Time to be King (2010)

Not to be confused with an Evil Plan or Oasis' namesake album.

The band shows examples of:

• Anti-Love Song: "When Love Comes Close"
• Continuity Nod: The chorus from "Spirit Never Die" shows up again under the last solo in "Black In The Burn".
• Cover Version: "Black Dog".
• Creative Differences: The reason for Lande's departure, apparently.
• Darker and Edgier: Than Helloween. In fact, this was the reason of why Kusch and Grapow were fired.
• Determinator: "Spirit Never Die".
• Epic Rocking: "Black In The Burn", which lasts almost 10 minutes.
• The End of the World as We Know It: "Far From The End Of The World" tells the story of a group of refugees who narrowly escape a vague apocalypse in search of a new place for humanity.
• Heavy Mithril: Through their albums, there's the occasional fantasy theme, an album (Aeronautics) that is arguably about a pilot in World War I and a significant amount of songs from Time to be King with science-fiction themes.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Michael Kiske appears in "Heroes".
• The Jimmy Hart Version: "After The War" and "After This War" share some similarities, besides the name. This is likely thanks to the fact that bassist Jan-Soren Eckert used to play for Iron Savior.
• Large Ham: Lande. The man is so hammy, he has a side project called "Allen/Lande", which consists solely of Ham to Ham Combat with- who else- Symphony X's "Sir" Russell Allen.
• Start My Own: Masterplan is the result of Grapow and Kusch being fired from Helloween.
• This Is Sparta: MA! STER! PLAN! Coming aliiiiiiive!
• Title Drop: In "Heroes"

We're the heroes of a new world/The Masterplan's rising...

• What Could Have Been: Before approaching Lande, Grapow and Kusch offered Michael Kiske the vocalist position of Masterplan. Surprisingly, Kiske accepted... but it was only on the condition that he wouldn't have to tour. Not wanting to need a second vocalist for tours, Grapow and Kusch turned to Lande.
  • Similarly, Russell Allen of Symphony X was originally intended to be the singer when the band was still a Side Project to Helloween. Both bands would no doubt have ended up very different if Kusch and Grapow hadn't been sacked.