About Masterplan
Masterplan is a German power metal band founded by guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch upon leaving Helloween in 2001.
During Helloween's tour of their album The Dark Ride in 2001, members Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch decided to form a side project. As the other Helloween members felt the two were more focused on their side project than Helloween at the time, both were later fired from the band. The name "Masterplan" was born out of the idea that they would be master musicians with the future in their hands, starting the newest power metal band of the new millennium. To fill out their line-up, Roland subsequently invited Children of Bodom keyboardist Janne Wirman. For vocals, Russell Allen was invited but he had to decline, being busy with his main band Symphony X. A second invitation was made for former Helloween singer Michael Kiske, who also rejected the proposal, claiming that he wanted to keep away from the metal scene. After being impressed with the vocals on the Norwegian band Ark's album Burn The Sun and a solo album titled Worldchanger, singer Jørn Lande was invited. Jørn accepted the invitation, completing the band roughly six months after the beginning of the project.
Their first full-length self-titled album Masterplan was released in 2003, produced by Andy Sneap. The band then consisted of Grapow and Kusch with Jørn Lande. The main part of the keyboard lines on the album were arranged and programmed by Roland and Uli. Keyboardist Janne "Warman" Wirman recorded some sessions for the album, but could not stay on as a full-time member due to his commitments to Children of Bodom. Axel Mackenrott replaced him on tour and soon after as a permanent member. Studio bassist Jürgen Attig helped with some bass lines on the recordings, but Grapow was the main bassist for the album. For tour and subsequent recordings, Jan-Sören Eckert was hired as a permanent member.
The band received the "European Border Breakers Award" from the European Commission in 2004, for the debut album success around Europe.
In January 2005, Masterplan released their second album, Aeronautics once again produced by Andy Sneap and the band. After two successful albums and their respective tours, during the writing of the third album the band parted ways with vocalist Jørn Lande, citing "musical differences" as the reason for the split. The split was amicable enough that Jørn agreed to perform four previously arranged live appearances before departing although two of these were eventually cancelled by the promoters.
On 4 October 2006, Uli Kusch announced his departure from the band in an interview with Darkside.ru. Although not discussing the details of what had happened, he mentioned the democratic principles of making decisions in the band as one of the reasons of his leaving – according to him, it often made getting a consensus nearly impossible. Three days later, Masterplan announced their new line-up through their official web site: Grapow, Mackenrott, Eckert, with new members Mike DiMeo and Mike Terrana . The band toured with Saxon as an opening act for Saxon's Inner Sanctum tour.
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