Mastermind - Angels Of The Apocalypse

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Artist:	Mastermind
Title:	Angels Of The Apocalypse
Label:	InsideOut IOMCD053
Length(s):	70 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2000
Month of review:	04/2000

Line up

Bill Berends - guitar
Rich Berends - drums
Lisa Bouchelle - vocals
Jens Johansson - keyboards

Tracks

1)	The End Of The World	10.35
2)	Perchance To Dream	6.19
3)	2000 Years	6.16
4)	This Lover's Heart	6.00
5)	The Queen Of Sheba	6.26
6)	With Dignity And Grace	3.35
7)	A Million Miles Away	6.30
8)	The Beast Of Babylon	5.30
9)	The Endless Enigma (bonus)	12.18
10)	Only In My Dreams (bonus)	6.03

Try a sample of the album in MP3 or RealAudio

Summary

I have little info on this record, but it should be well-known that this is the first album on which a female vocalist is present.

The music

The album opens as if nothing happened since the previous album by Mastermind: bombastic with heavy drumming and biting guitars. Then the pace of the music goes up a bit, leading up to a fast paced guitar part. Then the music goes down in pace quite a bit, to introduce the female vocal parts. Her voice is quite good, but especially in the first and last part of the chorus, the vocals are a bit too accessible. The backing vocals are also not very good and only make the music muddier. However the middle part of the chorus is quite good. On the whole there are just too many melodies and vocal lines, where I get the feeling that they could have done better. The energy is still there however, and the bluesy guitar solo is something we hadn't heard very much from Bill Berends. A track in which good and not so good parts alternate. In the next one also, the tempo is high, the music is bombastic metal. The vocal parts on this track are quite strong, dragging along the listener with the pace of an angry river. Essentially the music comes quite close to Gordian Knots' Rivers Dancing: dazzling piece and variation with Rich Berends military drumming as the main driving force. The Lana Lane like vocals of Bouchelle fit in quite well here. 2000 Years is back to the double vocals of the first track. Again not so succesful. Also, the melody I am not really fond of. The music may have been arranged in a progressive way, but the composition is a bit too simple and the melody as well. This is again accessible metal playing in a very energetic way. This Lover's Heart continues in the same way, but in this case the long drawn somewhat nasal vocals of the quieter verses, compensate for the more fast paced chorus that has the same problems as on the previous tracks: it sounds a bit too accessible and for me, there's too strong a metal feel. The Queen Of Sheba opens with electric guitar and sounds very "classical", maybe a bit into the Yngwie direction. Again, the slow ponderous and low vocals are quite good, but the chorus I really don't like, being up-tempo and too much of the singalong type. Such a part makes sure that I cannot like the track as a whole, and this is too bad. With Dignity And Grace is a nice instrumental on which Johansson does his best on the clavecimbel. A Million Miles Away is the closest we come to a ballad. Again, the music is melodic metal and not too complex. The stately vocals and the good vocal melody as well as the thoughtful guitar solo make this into a worthy track. The final track of the album sec, is The Beast Of Babylon. The doubled vocals are this time grunt vocals. A driving track in the line Perchance To Dream with dazzling playing by the musicians and some Arabic stylings, melodically. One of the best pieces on the album with some ripping solo guitar playing.

The first bonus track is a great one: The Endless Enigma is played here in a great way and by far the best track on the album. It does not consist of simply replaying the track, but also of incorporating parts of other ELP tracks therein and playing it in the dazzling Mastermind style. And to think that it did not end up on the tribute album! The second bonus track is Only In My Dreams, which has the same tendency of many of the previous tracks: an accessible chorus on top of a fast paced track. Again some worthwhile parts, e.g. the synthetic strings part, are alternated with parts I'm not that fond of such as the chorus.

Conclusion

Although I respect Bill Berends as a musician and think the second and third album (in part) and the previous one in his entirety were excellent, the change of style this time has in my opinion not been for the best. The music still has the pace (higher in fact than on the previous one), the bombasm, but it owes less to ELP (not bad in itself) and the compositions and often the vocal melodies are not very appealing. In many a track I find something that is not to my liking and this reflects on the song in its entirety. Often this has to do with the vocal parts. I have the feeling that this is upgraded (speed and complexioty) melodic metal, more than progressive rock, with some very popular sounding passages. It may be that this impression is mostly due to the vocals, but they do form an important component of the music. It is also telling that I like the ELP cover best, although I am myself not a great lover of that band. Notwithstanding, Bill Berends and as a consequence Mastermind, has had the tendency to change style by the album. Hence I might like the next album better.