MASTERPLAN – Novum Initium

Another album. Another singer. Masterplan cannot keep their man on the mic for long, it seems. The new one is Rick Altzi who is known for his work with Thunderstone and the German outfit At Vance. Of course, it is quite difficult to walk into the shoes of Jorn Lande, who, apart from an obvious inability to musically diversify amid a continuous stream of new releases, is without a doubt one of the best singers in Melodic Metal. So Novum Initium has a certain disadvantage from the start, but fortunately the songs don’t leave much time to wish for Jorn to come back.

What can be said of Roland Grapow, who is best known and loved for his work with Helloween, is he has a hand for fine melodies without forgetting he is supposed to Rock. Although occasionally Novum Initium tends to lean from catchy to cheesy, the band manages to refrain from overdoing it and keeps one foot planted solidly in the realm of the harder side of music. Several nice mid-tempo tunes intertwined with faster songs to keep it interesting build the backbone of this fine album, which will not disappoint anyone who ever liked an album from the above mentioned bands.

Special mention has to be made about the title track, which is a 10-minute epic. The fantastic keyboards and suspenseful composing skills make this an outstanding song… this alone makes the record worth buying.