Rick Altzi

Rick Altzi — born in Sweden in 1969 — is the vocalist of At Vance and Masterplan, two of the central bands of German melodic metal. His path is that of a Swedish singer who built his entire career in Germany, in a circuit that rarely imports vocalists. He joined At Vance in 2007 and recorded VII (2007), Ride the Sky (2009) and Facing Your Enemy (2012), taking on a particular repertoire: Olaf Lenk's band adapts classical pieces by Vivaldi, Beethoven and Mozart into a metal format, which means singing melodies originally written for an instrument. In 2012 he became Masterplan's vocalist, a band founded by Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch after both left Helloween. Taking that microphone carries its own weight: Masterplan debuted with Jørn Lande, one of the most recognisable singers in Scandinavian hard rock, and every successor is measured against him. His voice sustains both positions for the same reason: a weighty register, power without falsetto and pitch at high range — the school of traditional heavy metal applied to repertoires of considerable technical demand.