Also see: ProgFest '99 ~ NEARFest '99 ~ Jens Johannson
From: Jeff Marx
I have to commend the brother's Berends to anyone who likes an aggressive prog-metal
guitar style combined with bombastic overtones a la ELP. Mastermind's Volume Two
"Brainstorm" has a lot in common with the grandiose ELP sound even though there
are no keyboards played per se. Guitarist Bill Berends uses a midi guitar to trigger
sequences from Roland, Yamaha, and Oberheim synths. Rich Berends keeps up well on the
percussion side. As well as playing seven original pieces they 'cover' Wagner's "Ride
of the Valkyrie," and Rossini's "William Tell Overture." The title track
clocks in at a hefty 21:30, while "Triumph of the Will" goes 17:54. I've never
heard anything quite like it before-Magellan probably comes closest, although I'm more
impressed with Mastermind's sound. If you've heard this all B-4 please disregard.
Otherwise, give it a whirl.
From: Elias Granillo, Jr.
For the next album, *Excelsior!*, they're going to get about as close to being a real trio
as they may ever, by having virtuoso Jens Johannson handle the keyboard duties, leaving
Bill to handle purely guitar chores. I can't wait! Mastermind are one of North America's
best contempo~prog bands, along with Cast, Somnambulist (anyone who appreciates
Anglagard/Anekdoten needs this!) & Glass Hammer.
>How would you characterize Jens Johannson's playing style/genre?
Jens is from the "lickety-split" school of lightning-fast playing/soloing.
That's not what makes him so great, however; Jens is able to play in different styles
(metal/prog/jazz-fusion) and is a great arranger. Some of his credits include Mountain,
Yngwie Malmsteen's band, Dio's band, solo prog-metal/jazz-fusion projects, and as well as
playing with Mastermind now, he also joined Euro prog-metallers Stratovarius for the
recording of Visions, subsequent European/South American tour, and the resulting live
album, Visions of Europe (live).
From: Tetsu Hamanaka
Yes, I totally agree with all your opinions on Jens Johansson. He shreds on both Yngwie
and Stratovarius albums. But he opened up his chops and his imagination more on his solo
projects. I only have Fission album, but I also enjoyed his previous album, Heavy
Machinery album featuring Alan Holdsworth. Fission is also prog-jazzy album with a bit of
hard rock elements. When I listened to Fission album, I did not expect this kind of little
bit wierd jazzy/progish album (Don't get me wrong, I love fusion-jazz stuff like
Mahavishunu Orchstra and Return To Forever). I expect him to play more neo-classical
influence music. But I found out that Fission and other solo albums are made to fulfill
his own musical desire. Thus, I started accepting his style on this album. It takes a few
spins to understand his direction and motivation why he made this kind of album. then I
realized that Jens Johansson is not merely neo-classical keyboard player, but also
versatile and unique musician. I look forward to hearing Mastermind along with Zero Hour,
Dali's Dilemma, Leviathan, and Magnitude 9.
From: Adam Perkowsky <>
"Excelsior!" IMO is the best Mastermind CD to date. Maybe it's because it's all
instrumental and Bill doesn't sing on it! : ) Actually, it's probably because adding Jens
Johannsen brings a whole new sound to the band. Gone is the ELP-clone sound (except for
one track). I would say any fans of bands like Liquid Tension Experiment would like this
CD. Rich Behrends once again proves that he is the most underrated drummer on the prog
scene today. I can't wait to see Mastermind at NEARFest.
From: Carlos Lima <> Have you already listened to the new Mastermind's - Angels of the Apocalypse? No? Than I think that you should make a try if you fell in one of these categories: - fan of the band; - fan of prog-metal and/or hard-prog; - fan of Lana Lane. That's true! This new album has the typical Mastermind's sound with a singer very close to Lana Lane's voice. I like it a lot!
From: Jeff Marx <> I wasn't expecting my local Tower Records to have Mastermind's latest album, "Angel's of the Apocalypse," in their bins. Quite a surprise, and nice to finally hear their version of The Endless Enigma, which was supposed to be on the ill-fated Hybernation ELP Trib album. It's nice to see such fine bands as PLP and Mastermind doing ELP pieces.
From: "all4rains" <>
Mastermind - "Angels Of The Apocalypse" : Mastermind goes through
another transformation, this time heavy on the metal & featuring a female
vocalist, the lovely Lisa Bouchelle (now ex-Mastermind?). This one came as quite
a shock to me, but now it's getting quite a bit of time in the changer here.
From: "Fisher, Lee"
another poster had asked me for more info about the Mastermind CD and I thought
others might be interested: The Live CD is called Prog, Fusion, Metal, Leather
& Sweat and I believe it is brand new. In fact Bill Berends may have had it
made within the last week or two. I believe he has pretty much done the entire
thing himself. The only way I found out about it was Bill himself posted a
message about it on the fusenet digest egroup. He said it would be available
there. I asked some vendors about it and I think Greg Walker mentioned that he
had seen Bill with it the night before and I could track him down to buy it. I
eventually found Bill around and bought the disk from him. It is all songs
recorded at shows June 18-26 1999 including NEARFest 99. So it does feature Lisa
Bouchelle as well as Mickey Simmonds on keyboards. It's really packed, close to
80 minutes long. The tracks are: On the Road by Noon (6:29), The Approaching
Storm (7:31), Tokyo Rain (7:06), The End of the World (10:45), Sudden Impulse
(5:23), Decide for Yourself (6:23), A Million Miles Away (6:47), Sky Dancer
(5:40), When the Walls Fell (13:56), Jubilee (encore) (9:52). It's on Bill's own
new label, StellarVox and you can find all the info at www.stellarvox.com. There
is ordering info on that page and a comment that the sound quality is superb and
much better than live in tokyo. I'm listening to it now and it does sound quite
good!
From: "Jerry Keller" <>
Very respectfully, > It NEVER is better than when it was done originally.
Period! > C MDA
one cover i like better than the original is masterminds of ELP's
"endless enigma". bouchelles voice is wonderful.
From: "Stephen Ellis" <>
Subject: FW: A slow day in the office!
Mastermind "Angels of the Apocalypse": This CD has been one of my
favorites since it came out. I find the opening of this CD one of the better
I've heard. The opening cords and bombastic drumming of Bill and Rich Berends
just gets the flow going, then that Angelic mezzo-soprano voice of Lisa
Bouchelle just cuts through it all like a clear white light! This song "The
End of the World" sets the listener up for one heck of a CD that doesn't
disappoint one bit! More info go to www.k2nesoft.com/mastermind/
The opening kick drum sound of track two, "Perchance to Dream" gets my
blood all gurgly and boiling. I'm still amazed that a drummer can actually keep
that thumpyity thumpity thumpity thumpity up for a whole damn song! You go there
Rich ole boy!