As a power trio, they were very much in the Emerson, Lake & Palmer style, with fast and flashy playing inside anthems of considerable grandeur—except with guitar and guitar-synthesizer leads instead of keyboards.
Unfortunately, early startup delays hampered their release schedule, and Mastermind was forced to turn to a small independent label ZNR Records to finally re-release Volume One on CD in December, 1990.
The album was released worldwide in June 1995 by Cyclops Records/GFT in Europe and by Dutch East India Trading in North America on their in-house Prozone label.
In 1997, Mastermind performed live headlining in Japan, played festivals in Europe, supported Rush in New Jersey, and opened for Fish (of Marillion fame) across America.
In June 1997, Cyclops released a limited-edition Live in Tokyo disc (recorded earlier that year at On Air West), which quickly sold out its limited (1000 copies) edition.
As 1997 wrapped up, the brothers decided it was time for a change and famed Swedish metal keyboardist Jens Johansson (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, Stratovarius) was invited to record with the band.
Recruiting blues rocker John Benussi on bass from a local Jimi Hendrix tribute act Axis they play a repertoire of favorites both old & new.
After moving to São Paulo, Brazil, Bill Berends formed a new version of Mastermind in 2019[2] with Brazilian musicians Gabriel Costa (Violeta de Outono, Gong Global Family) on bass and Carlos Camasi on drums.