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Welcome to the review's section which as some of you will know when it was a printed publication went under the name of 'Pounding Metal', a great name thanx to Exciter - cheers John!! In this section you'll find all the latest reviews of some of the best metal acts around from AOR to Black Metal, so there will be something for everyone. If you have a cool album that you want me to submit then please send the review and also enclose the album cover to: poundingmetal13@hotmail.com thanx. Please do not send the cover as a huge file please. I will not review any of this Nu-Metal crap, so if you're looking for something of that nature go to Kerrang Website OK, this is a die hard metal Zine!! Here are the rating's: All Review's by Jason Brown & Mike Exley & newcomers - Neil Thompson & Paul Brady, Jim Hall & Northern * (Avoid), ** (Below Average), *** (Good),  **** (Great), ***** (Awesome!!) Click on 'Friday 13th' logo to return to History page.

Masterplan  "MK II"    AFM   *****    

Formed out of the ashes of German Power Metaller's 'Helloween' comes 'Masterplan' put together by Roland Grapow  and Uli Kusch (now with Beautiful Sin), along side Axsl Mackenrott & Jan Eckert. Since the early days of Masterplan which also featured the outstanding vocalist - Jorn Lande to the fold who took the band to a new level. Masterplan have released 2 previous albums also for AFM Records, which sold extremely well. Now the band are back, Roland and co are now hitting back with this stunning new album and new drummer and vocalist. Ex Rage and Axel Rudi Pell sticks man 'Mike Terrana pounds the drums, whereas new vocalist Mike DiMeo (Riot/ The Lizards) handles the vocal. Some would be asking if Mike is the most suitable vocalist for this band, which I myself had some doubt, but how wrong I was. Mike is the ideal replacement for Jorn Lande and this new album 'MK II' shows just how much the band have grown in the last year or so. This album comes with 12 trax of pure hard hitting Metal with some up tempo trax, some mid paste trax and a semi ballad, which makes this 1 hell of an album. OK, so there's still hints of Helloween, which wouldn't surprise you as Roland played a big part i Helloween's career, so there's bound to be some kind of rub off with Masterplans music. Masterplan are about to embark on a European/ UK tour as support to Saxon in March, so this will be an exciting year for the band. I'm not sure who produced this album, but I am pretty sure it was Roland with the help of Andy Sneap, and as ever the sound is solid which makes an album as good as this shine through. Songs on the album I enjoy are: Lost & Gone, Keep Me Burning, Warriors Cry, Take Me Over, I'm Gonna Win, Call The Gipsy, Watching The World, Trust In You, Heart Of Darkness. What a great start to the new year, I'm sure there will be more godo albums this year, but for now this is a awesome album, buy!!