A lyric video for “The Chance”, a track taken from MASTERPLAN‘s upcoming release “PumpKings” (out July 28th via AFM Records), is available now, watch below.

MASTERPLAN’s upcoming release will be a special one for band leader Roland Grapow, because it shows the man revisiting his Helloween past. “PumpKings” includes 11 songs which Roland contributed to Helloween’s rich legacy during his time in the band. These songs have been re-recorded by Masterplan’s current line-up recently. “PumpKings” will be released on July 28th as Digipak and colored (of course orange) double Vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

“The idea for this project was born more than three years ago”, Grapow recalls. “I’m proud of the songs, but these days I’d do certain things a bit different. So it was an easy decision to re-record them with Masterplan now. It took quite a while to come up with the album because I was busy with other productions in my studio and in addition we had just released our “Keep Your Dream aLive” DVD with Masterplan in the Fall of 2015, so there was no reason to rush things.”

The 11 tracks featured on “PumpKings” were written by Roland from 1990 – 2000 and can be found on Helloween’s albums “Pink Bubbles Go Ape”, “Chameleon”, “Master Of The Rings”, “The Time Of The Oath” and “The Dark Ride” in their original versions. Some of them were even released as singles and rank among Helloween fan favorites.

“Our new versions of the songs are heavier definitely”, Roland says. “It would have been pointless to just reproduce the tracks exactly as they were back then. But I feel that with our new take on it, the different vocals and overall more rough attitude, “PumpKings” could be an interesting thing for both Masterplan- and Helloween fans. However, it was great fun to revisit this very important phase of my career – like meeting old friends.”