Bart: Mastermind is a band that has been slightly overlooked for the past twenty years. And the question is: was this deserved? It happens to be the case that this band released a lot of cheesy music, be it electrified takes of classical stinkers, midi triggered symphonic prog, or over the top approaches of progressive power metal. But let's forget all about that and just listen to this new record, 'Insomnia'.
Oh well, before we start with the music: that digital 'babe' on the front cover is really too awkward to be believable: come on you guys! You've gotten yourself a fine female vocalist, was this necessary? So, over to what matters most. From the start some changes are clearly to be heard: the band decided to start focusing on writing compacter and more traditional songs. That is not to say we get formula work here: the band is stubborn enough to keep far from all too obvious verse-chorus stuff. Of course we do get to sing along to catchy melodies, of which 'Piggy World' may be the best example: a contender for live sing-along success. The rest of the songs also are of fine quality. Nothing really mindblowing, but still a nice listen. A lot of the times however, you might feel like they're dabbling on too much without really shooting fire out of their asses (big exception: 'Night Flier'). But this might also be caused by the somewhat mat production. Nonetheless: a great collection of songs that are a nice active listen on an easy-going progressive rock evening in your lazy chair.
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