BEAUTIFUL SIN is one of the many project’s featuring the drum machine that is MASTERPLAN’s Uli Kusch. ‘The Unexpected’ is the band’s debut album and comes after 4 years of ideas unsuitable for Kusch’s other projects, finally found a home. Joing the German sticksman are fellow MASTERPLAN member Axel Mackenrott on Keyboards, PAGAN’s MIND axe slinger Jorn Viggo Lofstad on guitars, with bass guitarist Steinar Krokmo and female vocalist Magali Luyten completing the line-up.

Album opener ‘Lost’ is a highly impressive metal number with a strong lead riff and a powerful, memorable chorus. The quality is maintained as ‘This Is Not The Original Dream’ quickly follows and is another excellent song, kicking off proceedings in fine fashion.

Next up is the power metal style ‘Take Me Home’ which hits hard with extreme amounts of layered vocals making the chorus sound like a typical slice of BLIND GUARDIAN. The speed may slow down slightly for ‘I’m Real’, but this melodic rocker is one of the album’s finest moments, with another mesmerising chorus paying wonderful compliment to the dreamweaving melodies. Belgian Frontwoman Magali Luyten sounds more along the slightly rougher vocal style of DORO than the smoothness of say WITHIN TEMPTATION’s Sharon den Adel although the music itself more closely follows that of the latter, with majestic sweeping melodies dominating the album’s early stages.

Next track ‘The Spark of Ignition’ is a guitar driven number with awesome solos and lashings of beautiful guitar harmonies, but it is slightly scarred by some out of place folk style choir chants, although the lead vocal melodies again impress. ‘Closer to My Heart’ is the album’s quietest moment and is a sleepy, delicate little tune that is a welcome change in the album’s direction to keep things varied and interesting.

The evil opening riff of ‘Give Up Once and For All’ turns the heat up again, and introduces what is certainly the heaviest and most uncompromising song of the album. For me though, this one doesn’t seem to compliment the rest of the album too well at all, and the swearing in the lyrics do seem to take the classy shine off the album, particularly with the language coming from a female vocalist. ‘Brace For Impact’ follows and is an instrumental track with some interesting things going on but at times sounds more like something that would be used on the soundtrack of an 80’s sci-fi movie - a strange but actually quite enjoyable inclusion.

‘Pechvogel’ and ‘Metalwaves’ are next up, and disappointingly don’t quite have the quality to compare to the album’s earlier tracks with decent melodies running dry and choruses not quite having the same memorable impact. The album is then closed with the second instrumental track ‘The Beautiful Sin’. A pleasant sounding tune that seems to fit it’s title completely, and some of it’s bombastic moments wouldn’t have sounded too out of place on the BRAVEHEART soundtrack - that is until it’s bizarre ending featuring the sound of farm animals - hmmmm???

For a lot of the time the music here is beautiful, but often the sin is just around the corner, with the occasional harsh vocals and down tuned crunching riff. For anyone with a soft spot for the likes of WITHIN TEMPTATION and BLIND GUARDIAN, ‘The Unexpected’ is certainly an album that is worth checking out, and one that might just surprise you.

Rating 3.9/5.0