Hafer Masterplan

Just in time for the 20th anniversary of the self titled Melodic Power Metal masterpiece, the debut album of Masterplan is finally available again!
Helloween alumni Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch made the best of their quarrelsome ousting from the German power metal pioneers, quickly getting right back into the thick of it with a new band project called Masterplan. Surrounding themselves with fellow veterans of the power metal community like Ark vocalist Jorn Lande and Iron Saviour bassist Jan S. Eckert only helped speed up their trajectory, and a record deal and debut E.P. soon set the stage for 2003's eponymous debut. And to their credit, Masterplan have concocted a remarkably memorable album, one which displays surprising variety and creativity within a severely over-crowded sub-genre with, let's admit, very little experimental wiggle room…

For American audiences, the phenomenal worldwide success of Oasis was a little puzzling. That's because they only had part of the picture – unless they were hardcore fans, they didn't hear nearly three albums of material released on B-sides and non-LP singles. Critics and fans alike claimed that the best of these B-sides were as strong as the best moments on the albums, and they were right. None of the albums had a song that rocked as hard as "Fade Away" (cleverly built on a stolen melody from Wham!'s "Freedom"), "Headshrinker," or "Acquiesce." There was nothing as charming as the lite psychedelic pastiche "Underneath the Sky" or the Bacharach tribute "Going Nowhere"; there was nothing as affecting as Noel Gallagher's acoustic plea "Talk Tonight" or the minor-key, McCartney-esque "Rockin' Chair," nothing as epic as "The Masterplan." Most bands wouldn't throw songs of this caliber away on B-sides, but Noel Gallagher followed the example of his heroes the Jam and the Smiths, who released singles where the B-sides rivaled the A-sides. This meant many American fans missed these songs, so to remedy this situation, Oasis released the B-sides compilation The Masterplan.