VOLUME ONE

MASTERMIND begun their career in 1986,when brothers Bill and Rich Berends recruited bassist Phil Antolino in order to form a progressive power trio in the vein of E.L.P. .By the same year performed live and recorded a self-produced cassette,named ''Volume I''.The same cassette was released as an official LP in 1990 by ZNR Records.If E.L.P. were a 90's band,then they might sound a lot like MASTERMIND.''Volume I'' is characterized by the numerous keyboard/guitars interplays,the complex sudden breaks and the nice guitar riffs and solos.Their sound is quite heavy,complex and bombastic without lacking in straightforward rockin' rhythms.The composition are rich in their sound,the tempos are mainly fast and the final result i a nice compination of powerful RUSH rock and complex E.L.P. keyboard-based prog rock.However,and despite the attractive style',the whole atmosphere is too cold and mechanical for my tastes...The guitars sound often too distorted and the vocals are below average...I recognize that ''Volume I'' might be an important early 90's release,that should appeal to lovers of bombastic and powerful progressive rock (I include myself in this list),but their debut sounds just too mediocre to my ears to rate over than 2 stars...