VOLUME ONE

Well what a pity for the weak production and the excessive profusion of bombastic solos in the vein of ELP...the album was over the average in that period, regarding the majority of the metal prog works from the USA!!Their use of a remarkable midi-guitar, enriched with an epic timbre, sounded like an "Emersonian keyboard";instead the big apparatus of drums (including timpani, gong and percussion as well) was in the vein of Carl Palmer ..."Fanfare" reminds me of the atmosphere concerning "Brain Salad Surgery" by ELP and, except on the weak vocals (a major defect here) and the excessive guitar solos, the rest is worth checking out at least!!

OK at the end this metal prog is very similar to the classic prog genre- ELP oriented- and as for this reason alone I can easily follow the 54 bombastic minutes of this epic album...but I think that the present album is lacking of an important sense of melody after several listens, which is very important to me! Make your own choice anyway!!

Mastermind are a three peice band that wear their ELP and Rush influences on their sleeve.'War Child' has more that the occassional echo of 'Rondo' (ELP/Nice) but they also do a some decent AOR ish stuff as well with 'Long Distant Love Affair'.The music here is generally heavier than ELP but not as powerfull as Rush.I'm not sure who I can really recommend it to.ELP fans will find the ELP musical references interesting but ultimately it isn't ELP, while Rush fans will prefer music with more 'oomph' I suspect.

MASTERMIND begun their career in 1986,when brothers Bill and Rich Berends recruited bassist Phil Antolino in order to form a progressive power trio in the vein of E.L.P. .By the same year performed live and recorded a self-produced cassette,named ''Volume I''.The same cassette was released as an official LP in 1990 by ZNR Records.If E.L.P. were a 90's band,then they might sound a lot like MASTERMIND.''Volume I'' is characterized by the numerous keyboard/guitars interplays,the complex sudden breaks and the nice guitar riffs and solos.Their sound is quite heavy,complex and bombastic without lacking in straightforward rockin' rhythms.The composition are rich in their sound,the tempos are mainly fast and the final result i a nice compination of powerful RUSH rock and complex E.L.P. keyboard-based prog rock.However,and despite the attractive style',the whole atmosphere is too cold and mechanical for my tastes...The guitars sound often too distorted and the vocals are below average...I recognize that ''Volume I'' might be an important early 90's release,that should appeal to lovers of bombastic and powerful progressive rock (I include myself in this list),but their debut sounds just too mediocre to my ears to rate over than 2 stars...