German melodic metallers MASTERPLAN have revealed their new band lineup.
Joining recently announced new drummer Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka (CRADLE OF FILTH) are vocalist Rick Altzi (AT VANCE, SANDALINAS, THUNDERSTONE), who replaces Jorn Lande, and bassist Jari Kainulainen (pictured below, ex-STRATOVARIUS, SYMPHONIA).
The band are currently recording the follow-up to their 2010 release, Time To Be King. The new album is expected in March, 2013. Bass recordings were completed today.
Stay tuned for further updates from the band.
MASTERPLAN lineup:
Rick Altzi – vocals Roland Grapow – guitars Axel Mackenrott – keyboards Jari Kainulainen – bass Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka – drums
German/Norwegian melodic metallers MASTERPLAN will enter guitarist/mastermind Roland Grapow‘s (formerly of HELLOWEEN) studio in Slovakia this weekend to begin recording their new album for a March 2013 release. The drums on the CD will be laid down by Czech musician Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka of CRADLE OF FILTH.
Commented Grapow: “I just came back from Hamburg two days ago from our final arrangement session with Axel [Mackenrott, keyboards] in his studio, for our new songs. That means we finished our songwriting, finally. This week we just do some prepairing for the big recording session on Sunday. Martin is coming to my studio in Slovakia, we will start recording drums from Monday on.”
He continued, “We have written 20 tracks, which are, of course, the best we ever wrote bla bla haha ; ). We might pick just 13 or 14 tracks on the end, to be honest, we are very happy with the result! Our magic is still there.
“In September I will lay down all my guitar stuff and bass, vocals will be recorded around November. Axel records his keys in his studio in Hamburg, mixing in December. We are planning to finish the album [in] January.
“And yes, we have touring plans this time…. maybe a big surprise package with some other great bands… Keep the fingers crossed!”
Back in March, Grapow stated about MASTERPLAN‘s next album, “We are looking for a more powerful album this time… still with great melodies and feelings, but also with more orchestration and faster stuff again… just more metal.”
In an August 2011 interview with the Czech web portal Kultura21.cz, Grapow said about MASTERPLAN‘s new material, “We have many, many new ideas which, I guess, are a little bit more modern and more aggressive as well. So we try not to follow any trends of MASTERPLAN — I’m not saying we’re reproducing the first album or the third one or the fifth one. I think we always have to try to make some surprises for the people. The ‘Time To Be King’ album is great, but this new album sounds a bit different again. I always want to do this, because I’m not that kind of guy who wants to make every year the same album.”
MASTERPLAN‘s last CD, “Time To Be King”, was released on May 21, 2010 through AFM Records. The CD’s first single, “Far From The End Of The World”, was issued on April 16, 2010.
German/Norwegian melodic metallers MASTERPLAN have tapped Czech musician Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka (CRADLE OF FILTH) to lay down the drum tracks for the band’s new album.
Commented MASTERPLAN guitarist/mastermind Roland Grapow (formerly of HELLOWEEN): “We are very happy that we found Martin. He is a very talented and powerful drummer and besides that he is an amazing gifted songwriter.”
Added Martin: “I feel honored that the band has chosen me to record drums on the new MASTERPLAN album! I have always been a huge fan of MASTERPLAN‘s music and I am indeed looking forward to record the new MASTERPLAN album! This is going to be a blast, no doubt about it!”
Back in March, Grapow revealed that he had 15 songs written for MASTERPLAN‘s next album. He added, “We are looking for a more powerful album this time… still with great melodies and feelings, but also with more orchestration and faster stuff again… just more metal.”
In an August 2011 interview with the Czech web portal Kultura21.cz, Grapow stated about the status of the songwriting sessions for the next MASTERPLAN album, “This time we tried not to make demo productions, which have a poor sound — so we wanted to make really nice pre-production [recordings] which sound very close to the album sound, which is very easy [to do] in my studio now. I think we have many, many new ideas which, I guess, are a little bit more modern and more aggressive as well. So we try not to follow any trends of MASTERPLAN — I’m not saying we’re reproducing the first album or the third one or the fifth one. I think we always have to try to make some surprises for the people. The ‘Time To Be King’ album is great, but this new album sounds a bit different again. I always want to do this, because I’m not that kind of guy who wants to make every year the same album.”
On the topic of MASTERPLAN‘s numerous lineup changes, Grapow said, “I think it’s always difficult in this band, I guess. If you see, the first album just came out after a big turbulence — leaving HELLOWEEN, Uli [Kusch, drums] and me. I think this band always needs some very bad moments to some great songs. [Laughs] And it looks like MASTERPLAN, basically, is my main band, and whoever will sing and whoever will play in the band, I’m happy with, or if Jorn [Lande, vocals] will stay as long as possible. But, basically, at the moment, I’m thinking the main songwriters are Axel [Mackenrott, keyboards] now and me. Also Jan [S. Eckert], the bass player, who was very involved in different in projects and has a great job now, just called me one week ago. He’s happy to continue with MASTERPLAN and he’s looking forward to the next album and the next tour. So whatever happens, this band will continue. It’s very important for me to show that we still have the power and the ability to write beautiful melodies and some aggression and rock and metal songs. Whatever we do, we want just to make good-quality stuff.”
MASTERPLAN‘s last CD, “Time To Be King”, was released on May 21, 2010 through AFM Records. The CD’s first single, “Far From The End Of The World”, was issued on April 16, 2010.
Vocalist AMANDA SOMERVILLE recently released her first full-on metal solo album, Alloy, under the TRILLIUM moniker. She discusses the project in a new interview on Rich Davenport’s Rock Show via the audio player below starteing at the 23 minute mark:
An excerpt from a recent interview with Somerville conducted by BW&BK’s Carl Begai is availabel below:
Folks that are expecting Somerville to follow a similar path to the work she’s done for EPICA and AVANTASIA on Alloy are in for a shock. Some tracks are attitude-laden cousins to melodic rock, others are heavy-edged and bordering-on-Black Sabbath dark. The album is almost completely devoid of orchestral arrangements and features no neo-classical bombast whatsoever, carried through numerous twists and turns instead by the vocals and some almighty riffs. Bottom line: Alloy is loaded with plenty WTF moments.
“Which is a good thing (laughs). Nothing about what I do is contrived; it all comes out the way that it comes out, and sometimes it needs to be a little more conformed, I guess. Literally, as cheesy as it sounds, the music pours out of me the way that I feel it. I don’t like following formulas. My songs have a typical song structure – verse / pre-chorus / chorus – and that’s just in me, but in terms of trying to fit a certain formula, that’s not a conscious thing for me. It’s not something I want to do, either. That’s why there are no Latin choirs on the album (laughs).”
“I’ve actually gotten comparisons to Epica and After Forever. In fact, one guy made the After Forever comparison before he knew that Sander was one of the songwriters on Alloy. That kind of surprised me, but Sander does have a signature sound, but I don’t hear the similarities.”
Click here for more, including Somerville discussing working with Sascha Paeth and Avantasia bandmate Jorn Lande (MASTERPLAN) on the song ‘Scream It’.
Alloy was released on November 4th in Europe and November 1st in North America. The tracklist is as follows:
‘Machine Gun’
‘Coward’
‘Purge’
‘Utter Descension’
‘Bow To The Ego’
‘Mistaken’
‘Scream It’
‘Justifiable Casualty’
‘Path Of Least Resistance’
‘Into The Dissonance’
‘Slow It Down’
‘Love Is An Illusion’ (bonus track)
The first video from the album is for the track ‘Coward’ which can be viewed below:
Source: Bravewords.com
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/mastermind Roland Grapow‘s (formerly of HELLOWEEN) studio in Slovakia this weekend to begin recording their new album for a March 2013 release. The drums on the CD will be laid down by Czech musician Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka of CRADLE OF FILTH.
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