Four years ago Masterplan were hailed deservedly for their great debut. The self-titled album was so good that it was hard to imagine what the real abilities of these well-known from the past musicians are. "Aeronautics" was released a few years later and marked the beginning of the end. The good ideas slipped out and the musicians continued to rely on the wonderful start they succeeded to gain. Their music was not so shiny and catchy anymore. There was no emotion and pure aggression as in the debut. That was the path which lead to the serious line-up changes... The most important member of Masterplan, vocalist Jorn Lande, quit. Uli Kusch left, too. The things for the rest of the band went in a wrong direction in a time when a new album was expected. Despite the problems, "MKII", was released, featuring new singer Mike DiMeo (ex-Riot) and drummer Mike Terrana, who quit Rage not long ago. Twelve power metal songs played in the vein of the good old times, but with new ideas and a modern sound - this is the content of "MKII". The production is worth paying attention to, and the album sounds more mature, heavy and melodic than ever, as a proof that this band does not think to split up and... Unfortunately the nice words for "MKII" end here. From the first few chords of the intro to the second song, "Warrior's Cry", one thing seems clear - we've heard this stuff already. With hope to be pleasantly surprised, you stay and listen to those songs again and again, but this is not happening. And you get really disappointed. The record is not so bad in general - not if the band was another one and we've never heard their debut album. DiMeo is a nice singer, but he's definitely not as good as Lande. His voice does not have Jorn's lights and shades of expression. This makes the songs with well-known riffs and melodies more right-minded, although there are nice ideas, too. "MKII" is not showing the real abilities of these musicians. I hope Masterplan will do something better next time with these new musicians on board, because everything else will be a disaster for them. It's a world full of heavy/power metal bands, after all...