MASTERPLAN

I don't think this is a progressive metal album. It is clearly a composition of some worthy power metal music, with some progressive elements floating here and there. What I disliked about Masterplan from the start was Jorn Lande's voice, although I really liked the way he performed in Ark's albums. His voice just does not seem to be fitting to the whole idea. As for the album itself, it contains several outstanding power metal songs, such as Sail on, Spirit Never Dies, Kind Hearted Light and Heroes, with the guest performance of metal's best singer ever, Michael Kiske. The other tracks of the album are however somewhat not really interesting, and fail to attract attention. We have the old same, normal euro-power metal structure with the strong choruses, though here reinforced by some very nice use of keyboards that defines how this instrument should be used in this genre, in contrast with the overuse of other bands of the same style. The bottomline is that this one is an album that is worth a shot, but might possibly disappoint some people, especially for those looking for something beyond a well designed typical power metal affair.