Roland Grapow

Roland Grapow — German guitarist and producer born in 1959 — joined Helloween in 1989, replacing none other than Kai Hansen, and later founded Masterplan. The replacement was among the hardest possible. Hansen had created, with Michael Weikath, the guitar vocabulary that defined German power metal on the Keeper of the Seven Keys records. Grapow took that chair and held it for twelve years, recording from Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991) to The Dark Ride (2000), including the phase in which the band rebuilt itself with Master of the Rings (1994) and The Time of the Oath (1996). In 2001 he and drummer Uli Kusch were dismissed from Helloween. The two answered by putting together Masterplan with Jørn Lande on vocals — and the debut, Masterplan (2003), is regarded as one of the best German melodic metal records of the decade: heavier and darker than standard power metal. Grapow still leads Masterplan today and is, with keyboardist Axel Mackenrott, the only member present through the band's entire history. He also works as a producer at his own studio in Slovakia.