Masterplan (band)
German power metal band
Masterplan is a German power metal band founded by guitarist Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch upon leaving Helloween in 2001.
History
During Helloween's tour of their album The Dark Ride in 2001, members Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch (who had been in the band since 1989 and 1994, respectively) decided to form a side project. As the other Helloween members felt the two were more focused on their side project than Helloween at the time, both were later fired from the band. The name "Masterplan" was born out of the idea that they would be master musicians with the future in their hands, starting the newest power metal band of the new millennium. To fill out their line-up, Roland subsequently invited Children of Bodom keyboardist Janne Wirman. For vocals, Russell Allen was invited but he had to decline, being busy with his main band Symphony X. A second invitation was made for former Helloween singer Michael Kiske, who also rejected the proposal, claiming that he wanted to keep away from the metal scene. After being impressed with the vocals on the Norwegian band Ark's album Burn The Sun and a solo album titled Worldchanger, singer Jørn Lande was invited. Jørn accepted the invitation, completing the band roughly six months after the beginning of the project.
Their first full-length self-titled album Masterplan was released in 2003, produced by Andy Sneap. The band then consisted of Grapow and Kusch with Jørn Lande.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q179898. VIAF identifies the subject as 32145970047432250711. The Library of Congress control number is no2013074050. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001, 1989, 1994 and 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “Masterplan (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.