Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Roland Grapow started playing guitar at the age of 12, his teacher told his father that he wouldn’t be a good guitarist, but as nobody can read the hand writing of destiny, Roland said NO and he made it. He is leading one of the best active power metal bands, MASTERPLAN, and also he was a part of legendary power metal generators HELLOWEEN for 12 years. A very successful and shining career is the result of that saying NO and his determination to continue.

Metal Shock Finland‘s Chief Editor Mohsen Fayyazi has recently conducted an interview with Roland and asked him several questions which were answered by some interesting stories. An excerpt can be read below:

Roland answered the question about what happened with the band and the new line-up, especially about Jorn with the following:

“Everybody always expects something special from Jorn, but it’s a very unstable situation. To keep happy it’s not easy and to be honest I’ve not heard from him for 2 years. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still friends but we just don’t have much contact.”

When Roland was asked if he thinks Jorn will go back to the band, he stated:

“No, as much as I love Jorn as a singer and he has an incredible voice and great ideas, we need to move on … I wanted Jorn back on the last album, but it was a compromise… We went more rock or AOR rock, but I want to get back to where we came from, more metal and melodic style.”

Roland commented about the upcoming MASTERPLAN album:

“We are not leaving the Masterplan path too much, but everything we have – the melodic part and a little bit progressive, I would say we’re a little bit more powerful and I’m also mixing the album this time. I want to get a little bit more modern, as the sound we have was created 10 years ago.

I’m really looking forward to presenting a new band and a new start with Masterplan. We’re still having the typical sound with melodies, but the drummer is amazing and plays a lot of crazy shit!

The music is first, then comes the creative stuff like artwork.”

When discussing with Roland about when he and Uli were fired from Helloween due to musical and personal differences, and what he thinks about Helloween in general, he answered:

“Statements from bands and managers always have to say something like that, but basically it was just some personal kind of problems we had. I felt very secure in Helloween. In the middle of the tour I said something to Michael and Markus and I said my opinion about something. I wanted to make something the best for the band and I think they misunderstood me, like I wanted to be leader. I was telling the truth and that’s how I am… It was a great time in Helloween … but I am happy when I left the band after “Dark Ride” because it’s one of my favourite albums, It changed my life totally … To be honest the first line up of Helloween was the best but of course I have to say when I was in the band, it was a great line up as well … I was very disappointed when I saw that they changed the style to get into the Chameleon direction, I think Helloween would be much bigger if they would continue with the style of Keepers albums, I think Helloween could be as big as Metallica today.”

You can listen to the whole of the interview on the player below:

For more info on MASTERPLAN:

• http://www.master-plan.net/
• http://www.myspace.com/masterplanmetal
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/MasterPlan/