His debut release, titled The Master Plan, is an instrumental extravaganza of progressive/metal/rock/jazz/fusion with an array of styles fused together in 10 different songs totaling just over 42 minutes. The focus throughout his compositions is primarily on the guitars but there are also some magnificent keyboard leads and fills. Chris nominates some of the greatest guitar virtuosos of all time as his influences but although one can find elements of many throughout The Master Plan, there is no cloning going on. As a matter of fact I would like to go a step further and say that Chris Brooks is on his way of developing a new side arm to fusion which is in parts heavier than anything else going around at the moment. Imagine the same speed and heaviness of a Yngwie Malmsteen but fuse that with Planet X or Explorer's Club and voila, you got a new breed of instrumental/progressive metal.

I would also like to mention that Chris played all of the instruments on this recording and the CD has some of the best sounding drum samples which must have taken him years to program. I do hope that he will find a real drummer to complement these great compositions in the future. (score 10/12)