It’s been a long time coming, but the new Insomnia album is now shipping to the general public! You can order a copy directly from the Mastermind Store or follow the links found there to distributors in your part of the world. Go have a look.

Lots of nice reviews are starting to come in too! Considering how long it took to get this album released it is somewhat vindicating to see these, supporting our own stubborn belief that we still have something to offer. Guitarist Bill Berends gives an in-depth interview on the Imhotep website discussing the album, the band, and various other topics posed.

We’ve posted an album sampler on our myspace page to give you a taste. There are two full tracks from the album to be found there as well. Once again we’ll mention that journalists, reviewers, DJ’s, etc interested in obtaining a promo copy of the album, or to arrange an interview, please contact “promo (at) lionmusic.com”

Thanks to everyone who has already ordered! The first wave of discs were mailed out today, but we still have a lot of work to do to get the word out… so shoot your mouths off and let people know! We are all grateful for your interest in the band and your continuing support. Stop back often for updates, there is more activity to come in the near future!

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We are now accepting orders for our new Insomnia album. The discs have been shipped and should arrive any day now. The official release date is Feb. 19th, 2010 and we should be able to ship on that day. If not, we will ship as close to that date as is humanly possible.

Visit the Mastermind Store now and order yours today!

For folks in the UK, Europe, & elsewhere, we have provided a few other links for your ordering convenience as well. We should have some info on Japan soon. The album will also be on iTunes shortly, just look up Lion Music there. Thanks!

More reviews and other info coming soon.

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The first Insomnia review is in and it is a good one! We hope this indicative of how everyone will receive the album, but for the moment this is a wonderful way to get things rolling. The album release date is February 19th, 2010 from Lion Music (Finland).

http://www.imhotep.no/?did=9095929&aid=9069486

For those too lazy to click…

“some of the most original and innovative music the world needs to hear”

Nice.

As mentioned below, reviewers, journalists, DJ’s etc. wishing to get an advance copy of the album for review, please contact “promo (at) lionmusic.com” for information. Thanks.

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January 9th is Mastermind vocalist Tracy McShane’s birthday! Happy birthday Tracy!!

Our new “INSOMNIA” album will be released February 19th, 2010 so spread the word! Feel free to link to this banner on your website or blog. Add us on Facebook, Myspace, and everywhere else as well. Thanks!!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/mastermindband/mm-banner-sm.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/mastermindband/mm-banner-2010×600.jpg

Reviewers, radio stations, blogs, etc. please email “promo (at) lionmusic.com” for info on getting an advance copy for review or to arrange an interview. Thanks.

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December 18th is Mastermind guitarist Bill Berends birthday! On this auspicious occasion we would like to make a very big announcement…

MASTERMIND has signed with LION MUSIC of Finland to release the long awaited INSOMNIA album!! Our first album for the label, “Insomnia” will be released on February 19th 2010. This is our first full length studio album in many years and features vocalist Tracy McShane joining founding members Bill Berends (guitars, synths, bass) and Rich Berends (drums) along with Jens Johansson (Stratovarius) once again contributing keyboard solos and piano.

We are all very pleased with this development and hope those of you reading will help spread the news far and wide, Mastermind is back! And to add to this wonderful news, the band has been rehearsing with bassist Tim Spillane preparing for live performances in support of the album release. As some may recall, Tim played bass with Mastermind in 2001 performing at our NJ Proghouse & Pittsburgh shows with Symphony-X amongst others. Welcome back Tim!

The Insomnia album also features the bass talents of Chris Eike & Greg Hagen.

Visit lionmusic.com for more information about the release.

Happy birthday indeed! A wonderful way to start a new year!

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This performance at Shibuya On Air West (Japan) became the Live In Tokyo album. Now after all this time you can actually see it! Hooray for the internets. More to come. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNpTAvjMdn4

Stop by youtube leave a comment and subscribe to our channel. Thanks!

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Continuing with the previous log entry, we present our second studio album Brainstorm for your listening pleasure. We hope to introduce new fans to our early works and give everyone an opportunity to hear the music.

Presenting Mastermind Volume Two “Brainstorm first released in December 1991…

Once again, downloads are available in multiple formats as well as mp3’s, but you can stream the entire album online and enjoy it free. Thanks for listening!

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We know a lot of people have been fans of the band for a long time (we love you all!) so this is old news. Yet we are also aware many people have only came to know us from our last few releases since Inside Out had pretty good distribution.

Over time our earlier works have been getting harder to find on CD, so to help you learn more about the history of the band you can now listen to our albums in their entirety at bandcamp.com * where we will start from the beginning and work our way forward.

This is Mastermind Volume One, our first album from 1990. We hope you enjoy it…

Go directly to the page by clicking the name above. You can embed this little player anywhere you like too! Just click the SHARE link there and choose a player. Cool! Do it with individual songs too. There is a freebie in there too if you look for it. There’s also an option to purchase at any price above the minimum if you want to show your appreciation. We sure could use your help! If not, you can listen as much as you want online, no strings attached. We just want you to hear the music. Listening to it again while prepping the files…. it’s still a darn good album even after all these years.

Bandcamp downloads are in any format you choose too… mp3, AAC, FLAC, Ogg, Apple Lossless, etc. We hope you decide you can’t live without it and snag a copy for your iPod or whatever people use these days! Thanks and enjoy. More to come.

* all titles are at Mindawn as well, but the bandcamp streaming feature is excellent.

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09/09/09! Wow, time sure flies… I haven’t blogged here in months. Probably because nothing concrete has been going on in the world of Mastermind the band, but lots of little things have happened over the last few months, so here are some quick updates…

We’ve got a new download page at bandcamp.com which is very user friendly. There you can listen (free) and download Mastermind in a variety of formats [mp3, VBR, ACC, Ogg, Flac, Apple Lossless] for just one low price. The URL is easy to recall: mastermind.bandcamp.com and 100% of your purchase price goes directly into our artist Paypal account which is nice.

There is also an option to pay whatever you’d like above the suggested price if you’d care to help fund future endeavors. We hope some of you choose that option! There are web widgets under the “Share” link so you can stream Mastermind tunes anywhere on the web. Very cool.

The complete Mastermind catalog is still at Mindawn and we’re pleased with them, but we want to reach more people – so check out mastermind.bandcamp.com – you’ll like it. We’ll have more titles online soon. The Broken EP is also now available as mp3 from Nimbit too, another site with a widget. Check that out on our digital download page.

Since we are without a record label a the moment, getting this online thing going is really our best shot at carrying on… so we do hope you choose to make a purchase! That’s the best way to show your support and improve the odds of us getting back on our feet again. Thanks.

Next up, I’ve started billberends.com in order to keep other music and personal rants out of the Mastermind legacy so to speak. Not much there now, but there will be. I have completed an instrumental guitar solo album as mentioned previously which I hope to release within my lifetime. If anyone would care to kick in a little funding to get things rolling, do get in touch!

I’ve also set up a blog to talk about guitars (and whatever) at billberends.blogspot.com and a new youtube channel for anything else comes that to mind at youtube.com/billberends so go have a peek. The first thing I did was a little shred video… I have some video ideas for the guitar album coming. It’s a youtube world.

There’s a new Mastermind Facebook page too. Facebook is the new Myspace it seems, so stop by and add yourself. Write something nice on our Wall there. Let us know you care!

Most significantly tho’ today – and I find this hard to believe myself – it’s been ten years to the day since we finished mixing Angels of the Apocalypse our last full studio release. I never expected that to be the last hurrah and still don’t feel like it was… we did finish another album, but never managed to get it released for a variety of reasons. The good news is someone has expressed an interest so there is hope it may eventually see the light of day. That would be great. Plus, we have begun recording new material as well.

Anyway… after all this time I am still amazed by the people that come out of the woodwork to express their appreciation for the music we’ve made over the years. Some are long time fans, others just discovering us, but it has been a steady flow. So I will never say never. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another ten years! Regardless of what the future holds, I thank you for your interest in Mastermind. Till next time…

-Bb

ps: a couple Berends Brothers Band gigs this month too. Hope to see you there!

[UPDATE: Mindawn went out of business without a word. Everything still works I think. -Bb]

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We’ve finally gotten ’round to getting a page up on Facebook.

facebook.com/Mastermindband

We hope all you Facebookers will join us there!

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