Axel Mackenrott

Axel Mackenrott — German keyboardist born in 1969 — has been in Masterplan since the band's founding in 2003 and is, alongside Roland Grapow, the only member present through its entire history. Masterplan was born of a rupture: Grapow and drummer Uli Kusch had been dismissed from Helloween in 2001 and put together a group of their own, with Jørn Lande on vocals. The result was not a copy of Helloween — it was melodic metal that was heavier, darker and more elaborately harmonised, and the keyboard has a central part in that. Mackenrott does not treat the keyboard as accompaniment. His layers give the band's sound the near-orchestral density that distinguishes it from typical German power metal, and in the instrumental passages he shares the solo space with Grapow's guitar. He was on every record, from Masterplan (2003) to Metalmorphosis (2026), across two departures and a return by Jørn Lande, Rick Altzi's spell on vocals and the changes in the rhythm section. In a band marked by line-up instability, he is one of the two anchors.