{"id":996,"date":"2015-02-23T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mastermindband.com\/blog\/?p=996"},"modified":"2015-02-23T12:14:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T17:14:25","slug":"mastermind-insomnia-5-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mastermindband.com\/blog\/mastermind-insomnia-5-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastermind: Insomnia – 5 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 19th, 2015 marked the 5th anniversary of Mastermind’s 7th full length studio album release – Insomnia<\/a> – featuring vocalist Tracy McShane’s album debut and Jens Johansson returning for his third outing with the Berends brothers progressive rock outfit. The darker, heavier sound is something of a departure from previous titles, but continues an evolution that began with the explosive instrumental fire of Excelsior<\/a>, morphing into the female fronted symphonic prog-metal of Angels of the Apocalypse<\/a>, and evolving yet further into something unusual and quite unique. This was a 21st Century Mastermind for sure, yet many elements of the Berends signature sound are still present and identifiable.<\/p>\n

However, Insomnia<\/a> almost never saw the light of day. After a long and arduous search for a suitable new label, the album was eventually released worldwide by Lion Music<\/a> in Finland, run by Swedish guitarist Lars Eric Mattsson. Changes in personnel, changes in the record business, broadband internet, the global economy, all contributed to the delay. Most of the recording was done years earlier between 2002 and 2004 with two songs released as a preview on the Broken<\/a> EP of 2005 along with several live tracks. Almost a full album in itself. The band gigged often during the early 21st Century building a receptive new audience on the live circuit, so a lot of the material road tested and gaining traction with new fans. <\/p>\n

\n