German/Norwegian melodic metallers MASTERPLAN will enter guitarist/mastermind Roland Grapow's (formerly of HELLOWEEN) studio in Slovakia this weekend to begin recording their new album for a March 2013 release. The drums on the CD will be laid down by Czech musician Martin "Marthus" Skaroupka of CRADLE OF FILTH.

Commented Grapow: "I just came back from Hamburg two days ago from our final arrangement session with Axel [Mackenrott, keyboards] in his studio, for our new songs. That means we finished our songwriting, finally. This week we just do some prepairing for the big recording session on Sunday. Martin is coming to my studio in Slovakia, we will start recording drums from Monday on."

He continued, "We have written 20 tracks, which are, of course, the best we ever wrote bla bla haha ; ). We might pick just 13 or 14 tracks on the end, to be honest, we are very happy with the result! Our magic is still there.

"In September I will lay down all my guitar stuff and bass, vocals will be recorded around November. Axel records his keys in his studio in Hamburg, mixing in December. We are planning to finish the album [in] January.

"And yes, we have touring plans this time.... maybe a big surprise package with some other great bands... Keep the fingers crossed!"

Back in March, Grapow stated about MASTERPLAN's next album, "We are looking for a more powerful album this time... still with great melodies and feelings, but also with more orchestration and faster stuff again… just more metal."

In an August 2011 interview with the Czech web portal Kultura21.cz, Grapow said about MASTERPLAN's new material, "We have many, many new ideas which, I guess, are a little bit more modern and more aggressive as well. So we try not to follow any trends of MASTERPLAN — I'm not saying we're reproducing the first album or the third one or the fifth one. I think we always have to try to make some surprises for the people. The 'Time To Be King' album is great, but this new album sounds a bit different again. I always want to do this, because I'm not that kind of guy who wants to make every year the same album."

MASTERPLAN's last CD, "Time To Be King", was released on May 21, 2010 through AFM Records. The CD's first single, "Far From The End Of The World", was issued on April 16, 2010.