Customer Reviews

Aeronautics

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Boy was I looking forward to this release, but I was disappointed by the production this time. The guitar is so up front that the bass, drums and even Jorn are lost in the background, so some of the technical aspects are lost. Spin a few tracks from each project back to back and you'll probably agree. I also feel that this project is missing some of the creative variety that was present on their self titled CD like Heroes, Enlighten Me, and When Love Comes Close. I don't feel they wrote any songs that let Jorn showcase is awesome vocal talent.

While their first self-titled debut shocked the listener with its blend of master musicianship, playing metal in a lot of different disguises and textures, a bunch of great songs from beginning to end, this follow up is a little bit more like any generic European power metal band around. The songs are much less memorable, Uli Kusch did not resist to change the album into a double kick drums orgy, even Jorn Lande's amazing vocals do not seem so brilliant here.

I dont know what happened. I rea'd in a lot of magazines that this was superior than their debut, but it's not even close.

Another Masterplan album that leaves you smiling from one ear to the other. Definitely, when Helloween kicked out guitar Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch, they threw away the best 40% of the band. Just compare it with Helloween's last and forgetful release "Rabitt don't come easy". In fact, the two fired "apprentices" are finally free from Helloween's style boundaries to create a masterpiece where the songs are all excelent and remarkably different, yet bearing the same signature of a band filled with talent, love for metal and inspiration.

Grapow is riffing like Judas Priest, soloing like a humble Malmsteen and composing like Adrian Smith. Uli Kusch is a monster drummer despite being an arrogant son of a b**** with the fans. Keyboards complement the song perfectly, increasing the song's feeling, no soloing like Stratovarius or too grandiose like Nightwish. But the name of the game is Jorn Lande. The best description of his voice is David Coverdale singing Dio-like songs with James LaBrie (Dream Theater) feeling and interpretation. His voice always seems perfect, whether he is screaming for vengeance or whispering about love. You have to listen to believe.

- Crimson Rider is a great and fast opener with perfect chorus and guitar solo.
- Back For My Life (first single) starts singing melancholic and move to a chorus that asks God for redemption followed by tetric keys. Spooky and great.
- Wounds is very melodic, mixing current Helloween rythm, Jorn Lande voice and Stratovarius keys, a great song.
- I'm Not Afraid is very interesting, one of my faves. Epic opening, slow evolution and a hair band, poppy chorus that will make you sing from the first time, all adding to a slow, melodic and long guitar solo.
- Headbanger's Ballroom is what you expect, but even better: heavy riffing, aggressive vocals, tetric keys, and a Helloween-like solo that could be the national anthem of any country.
- After This War is slow, thoughtful, melancholic where Lande explores his Coverdale vocal style and Grapow soloes with great feeling.
- Into The Arena is one of Lande's finest songs, where he explores a more raw singing, following a steady, heavy and rythmic guitar and drum playing.
- Dark For The Dying is long, dense and heavy song that Lande uses to vary his style all along.
- Falling Sparrow is my fave. Very melodic, full of tempo variations with a sad feeling bridge and chorus that sent shivers down the spine and makes you sing it all the time.
- Black In The Burn starts with Lande's desperate voice, evolving and growing in heaviness and speed to a great melodic metal fast chorus.
- Treasure World (on some editions only) agains sees Lande on a Coverdale mood and the band alternates epic and acoustic parts over an overall slow, long and thoughtful song.

My advice: buy Aeronautics and the band's first release (Masterplan). You won't regret it.

Long review short, Masterplan's sophomore album Aeronautics is a step down from their eponymous debut, but it will still please most of their fans, considering the amazing musicianship, vocals, and the incredible production it encompasses.

The album begins with crunch-filled riffs by Roland Grapow thickened with ferocious bass and pounding drums. "Crimson Rider" was inspired by a pilot who lost his life in France during WW1. It's a brief yet hard-hitting opener that flows into the more mid-tempo "Back for My Life" where Axel Mackenrott's excellent keyboards underpin Jorn Lande's dramatic vocals. Speaking of Mackenrott, his keyboard contribution to Aeronautics is tremendous. I will respectfully disagree with other reviewers who say this album has little keyboard utilisation. To me, Aeronautics has more prevalant synth arrangements than the debut and some songs actually seem like they were penned around keyboard-generated ideas. On "I'm Not Afraid", not only do Grapow and Kusch revisit their earlier Helloween days, the song also has an undeniable symphonic power metal backdrop. Mackenrott tightly knits a web of symphonic aura that lets Lande shift smoothly between his crystalline and more aggressive vocals. The song also has some of his best screams on it that get really intense at the end. "Wounds" is the band's take on classic Euro power metal with a lot of double bass drums, poppier harmony guitars, cathcy choruses, and an enjoyable guitar and synth interplay. "Into the Arena", while sonically heavier, also expands on mighty synth work, tastefully placed far back in the mix by Roy Z. Great bass from Jan-S Eckert and a driving guitar melody hold the song together while Jorn Lande gets to convince those who are still unconvcined that he is one of the best vocalists in the universe.

Two songs that immediately caught my attention were "Dark from the Dying" and the last song "Back in the Burn". I feel this kind of songwriting is what the guys are best at, and maybe they should try to steer clear of the more formulaic, semi-hard rock and semi-power metal tracks. The darker the songs, the more effective Masterplan becomes. "Dark from the Dying" even features some Beyond Twilight type of multi-tracked vocal harmonies (again carefully hidden under more melodic undercurrents). It is broken up in the middle by a synth lead to develop added atmosphere and reaches its apex with soaring vocals until the song fades out. "Black in the Burn" almost sees 10 minutes and is the band's most complex and textured number. Open piano notes and a capella vocals become more engaging as guitars, bass, and drums join them respectively. Roland Grapow plays changing rhythms galore (we want more of this!) and the song is comprised of tons of melodic movements. Though I could certainly do without the lyrics in the chorus ("When the news are heard / About the fallen bird / Sing my song so you can remember / I just wanted to be here forever you see / To create my soaring melody"), this is easily Masterplan's most courageous songwriting experiment on Aeronautics. Another song whose lyrics I find terribly cheesy is the ballady "After the War", starting with great acoustic guitars that morph into a bluesy hard rock lead towards the end. However, the lyrics, rather than conveying thought, feel like they were put together based on the fact that they rhymed well with each other. I know the guys in Masterplan can do better than that.

The production of Roy Z is absolutely fantastic. Warm, slick and incredibly powerful. The drum and bass tone is perfect and Grapow's guitars sound heavier than the debut. That said, I still prefer the first album, and have to repeat myself: Masterplan is still the worst band Jorn Lande has been in. You don't believe me? Listen to Ark and Beyond Twilight, and see what this guy is truly capable of. Sadly, considering the music of his current band, he'll never get to demonstrate this side of his talent in Masterplan.

In order to do a review, i try to be objective first.Well, the music here is much more elaborate in it's arrangements and vocal melodies, but without falling in a technical metal aproach.
Unfortunately, this album touch me in several subjectives ways so i stop being objective from now on.My ears are always craving for some touching melodic fest within the metal frame.In Kamelot i found this characteristic and also Sonata Arctica; Angra; Symphony X; Helloween and Blind Guardian give me that too.The debut album from Masterplan of course has plenty of melodic hooks galore (and by the way it's one of the best debuts in Metal Hystory...check it out!)but in this work the band has really surpase themselves in every way! What a great vocalist Jorn Lande is, man.Roland is at his shredding best, truly in top form.I never heard him so good in Helloween.Maybe they didn't push him enough!And Uli is doing some great varied stuff here, his work here is the best since The Time Of The Oath from Helloween.The choruses of all the songs are catchy as hell but without being pop-like, chessy or corny.As much as i liked the debut, there were several filler in there and in this i don't find any.Only high quality stuff throughout.My favourite song anyway is Wounded, one of the most power metal oriented tracks.Also: Crimson Rider; Back For My Life and Falling Sparrow are awesome album highlights.But i repeat: all of them will make an everlasting impression on you, like they did on me.
Highly Recommended.

I have read several glowing reviews, and I am with the few others on Amazon that regard this sophomore effort as a disappointment. The mix is a bit unusual. The hard rock of the first CD is more power metal on this CD, but I am not bothered by the change. I think that the quality of the songwriting is inferior. Aeronautics starts with a real bang: Crimson Rider, Back For My Life, Wounds, and I'm Not Afraid (the first four songs) give you the impression that this album could contend with the top CDs of the year. The quality dips a tad with Headbanger's Ballroom, then nosedives with the next three songs. Falling Sparrow has a catchy chorus and the last song Black in the Burn feels too long at over 8 minutes.

2005's Aeronautics is the second album from Masterplan, the melodic metal supergroup featuring former Helloween members Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch and Norwegian super-vocalist Jorn Lande. Masterplan's self-titled debut was an instant classic, so expectations were high for this follow-up album.

Masterplan continues with the same core sound they had on the debut album. It's a sound with power metal origins and progressive metal as well as classic rock influences. The melodies are incredible without becoming too catchy, the keyboards are never abused, and Jorn sounds incredible here, channeling both David Coverdale and Ronnie James Dio (RIP) and demonstrating yet again why he has become the voice of melodic metal. I don't think the songwriting is quite on par with the first Masterplan album, but honestly it's not that far off. There are more than enough completely memorable songs on Aeronautics, chief among them the single "Back for My Life" and "After this Life" and "I'm Not Afraid." There are a couple of filler tracks, but filler for Masterplan is still better than most of the competition's best material!

It may not be quite as impressive as the debut, but Aeronautics is still an incredible melodic metal album that should appeal to just about anyone who is a fan of melodic, power and perhaps even progressive metal. If you follow bands like Last Tribe, Starbreaker, Pretty Maids, Vanden Plas, Saint Deamon, and the like, you'll want to check it out. Besides, any album with Jorn Lande singing is an album worth owning!

Edition Notes: There are a few different versions of Aeronautics floating around. The basic version has 10 songs. The limited edition, which comes in a digipack, has an eleventh track titled "Treasure World." The Japanese import version has two bonus tracks - "Love Is a Rock" and "Hopes and Dreams." The version I have is on Icarus Records and has 14 tracks, including "Love Is a Rock," a studio b-side called "Killing In Time" and radio edits of "Killing In Time" and "Back for My Life" There is also a video clip for that single.

Masterplan is one of the best European band on metal scene today.
Great vocal,beautiful melodies and unbeliveable guitars.
My favorite band of all.I recomend both Masterplan's albums to every metal fan.You won't regret the purchase!

Another Masterplan album that leaves you smiling from one ear to the other. Definitely, when Helloween kicked out guitar Roland Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch, they threw away the best 40% of the band. Just compare it with Helloween's last and forgetful release "Rabitt don't come easy". In fact, the two fired "apprentices" are finally free from Helloween's style boundaries to create a masterpiece where the songs are all excelent and remarkably different, yet bearing the same signature of a band filled with talent, love for metal and inspiration.

Grapow is riffing like Judas Priest, soloing like a humble Malmsteen and composing like Adrian Smith. Uli Kusch is a monster drummer despite being an arrogant son of a b**** with the fans. Keyboards complement the song perfectly, increasing the song's feeling, no soloing like Stratovarius or too grandiose like Nightwish. But the name of the game is Jorn Lande. The best description of his voice is David Coverdale singing Dio-like songs with James LaBrie (Dream Theater) feeling and interpretation. His voice always seems perfect, whether he is screaming for vengeance or whispering about love. You have to listen to believe.

- Crimson Rider is a great and fast opener with perfect chorus and guitar solo.
- Back For My Life (first single) starts singing melancholic and move to a chorus that asks God for redemption followed by tetric keys. Spooky and great.
- Wounds is very melodic, mixing current Helloween rythm, Jorn Lande voice and Stratovarius keys, a great song.
- I'm Not Afraid is very interesting, one of my faves. Epic opening, slow evolution and a hair band, poppy chorus that will make you sing from the first time, all adding to a slow, melodic and long guitar solo.
- Headbanger's Ballroom is what you expect, but even better: heavy riffing, aggressive vocals, tetric keys, and a Helloween-like solo that could be the national anthem of any country.
- After This War is slow, thoughtful, melancholic where Lande explores his Coverdale vocal style and Grapow soloes with great feeling.
- Into The Arena is one of Lande's finest songs, where he explores a more raw singing, following a steady, heavy and rythmic guitar and drum playing.
- Dark For The Dying is long, dense and heavy song that Lande uses to vary his style all along.
- Falling Sparrow is my fave. Very melodic, full of tempo variations with a sad feeling bridge and chorus that sent shivers down the spine and makes you sing it all the time.
- Black In The Burn starts with Lande's desperate voice, evolving and growing in heaviness and speed to a great melodic metal fast chorus.
- Treasure World (on some editions only) agains sees Lande on a Coverdale mood and the band alternates epic and acoustic parts over an overall slow, long and thoughtful song.

My advice: buy Aeronautics and the band's first release (Masterplan). You won't regret it.

The CD arrived in Tasmania more or less at the predicted time. It was very well packed and quite undamaged. Since I ordered this for my 23 year old grandson I can say nothing about the quality of the music. I wouldn't listen to it in a fit.

I have no complaints at all about Amazon's service. Regards, John Phillips.