...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI


..::OPIS::..

Mekong Delta jest tym w historii thrashu, czym w historii literatury grozy było pojawienie się H.P. Lovecrafta – jakościowym przeskokiem tak ogromnym, że podobnego nigdy wcześniej nie zanotowano. Otóż bowiem pojawili się ludzie, którzy obrawszy sobie za podstawę thrash, tak go zmutowali, że nawet rodzona i kochająca matka by go nie poznała. Sam zaś album The Music of Erich Zann był dla Mekongów prawdziwym, choć drugim, początkiem. To, co wydobywa się z głośników to istna orgia – nieskrępowana, bezwstydna, niepohamowana żądza ucztowania – muzyczne bachanalia. I choć do absolutu z „Dances of Death” jeszcze trochę brakuje, a niedoskonałości wieku młodzieńczego są wciąż słyszalne, to nie ma najmniejszej wątpliwości, że oto ma się przed oczami prawdziwe cacuszko. Tak w dziejach świata nie grał nikt inny, a i dziś — po ponad dwudziestu latach od premiery — niewielu udało się zbliżyć do tego poziomu. Muzyka Mekongów jest tak niepowtarzalna, że stała się przysłowiowym „jabłkiem” (kto zna, ten wie).

Zapraszam więc do degustacji i delektowania się bogatym bukietem smaczków. Na początek, znak rozpoznawczy wszystkich krążków pod wezwaniem Trójkąta – wokale. Te, zaserwowane przez Wolfganga Borgmanna, zaskakują dosłownie wszystkim: barwą, motoryką, dynamiką i rozmachem. Barwa może się wydawać (ale tylko z początku) irytująca i nieprzystająca do muzyki. Z czasem jednak (w praktyce około piątego przesłuchania) okazuje się, że nie mogłaby być nawet o jotę lepsza. Barwa nadaje muzyce oryginalnego szlifu i nieco kwaśnawego posmaku i — niczym sok z limetki wydobywający smak potraw — wyciąga na powierzchnię bogactwo niuansów. A to wpływ samej barwy jeno. Kolejnym środkiem wyrazu są dynamika i motoryka – nie dość, że wokale są nieprzewidywalne, pełne ekspresji, to jeszcze mają w sobie moc legionu Kupichów. Czuć tę moc na każdym kroku – tak w chwilach zrywu, jak i wyciszenia. Generalnie, wokalista ma gdzie poszaleć (co zresztą czyni), tym bardziej, że kompozycje wyciskają z niego siódme poty – niczym sokowirówka z kilograma gruszek. Nie gorzej mieszają gitary, raz podchodząc pod klasykę, innym razem kombinując tak okrutnie, że kultyści Cthulhu mogliby się poczuć zawstydzeni. Riffy są zarówno nieokiełznane jak i dokładnie przemyślane, a solówki oblepiają mackami. Osobny rozdział można napisać o basie, bowiem wcina się w historią rzemiosła, niczym T. Lis w zdanie swoim rozmówcom. Jest wyraźny, ładnie wyeksponowany i prócz tworzenia szkieletu kompozycji, zdarza mu się zapędzić w solówki. 10042010 słów uznania należy się także garowemu, bo to on przejmuje na siebie obowiązek utrzymania pozostałych indywiduów w ryzach, gdy basmanowi zdarzy się poindywiduować. A uwierzcie – utrzymanie takiej muzyki w ryzach jest wyczynem karkołomnym, graniczącym wręcz z niemożliwością. Kompozycje mają nie tyle pazurki, co potworne zębiska, więc mlask! – jeden nieodpowiedzialny dźwięk i podcieramy się łokciem. Poskromienie takiego progresywnego monstrum świadczy natomiast o niebywałym talencie i wyśmienitym kunszcie. Faktem jest, że album ma pewne niedociągnięcia, ale ich świadomość ma się tylko dlatego, że Mekongi poszli jeszcze o krok dalej. Gdyby nie to, patenty z The Music of Erich Zann byłyby traktowane jako te niedoścignione i nieosiągalne. I takie w swoim czasie były.

deaf


When a friend of mine gave me the two Mekong Delta albums in 1988, the debut and the one reviewed here, I only listened to the first three tracks from the latter as it happened to be on side A. I never even bothered with the debut since I had no desire whatsoever to wreck my brain with these illogical, surreal accumulations of riffs and eclectic sounds that made absolutely no sense from a compositional point-of-view. I came across these German “psychos” about a month after Voivod, and I started feeling uneasy about what our favourite metal could possibly turn into in the future…

four years later, in 1992 to be precise, I decided to record an album by a band named End Amen based on this act’s ties to Deathrow, a band I like a lot, and I also saw that the new Mekong Delta album was out. It’s not that I had the most pleasant memories from their early exploits, but since the End Amen opus was 43-min long, I decided to fill in the rest of the cassette (60-min) with some tunes from the Mekongs’ latest. At that time I had already warmed up to less conventional musical ways of expression, and once the twisted serpentine riffs of “Innocent?” started, I knew I had to go back and revisit places that I wasn’t prepared to savour properly earlier.

It was much later when I detected similarities between the guitar formulas here and the ones on Living Death’s “Protected from Reality”, an album I got hooked much more easily largely due to the gorgeous instrumental “Woods of Necrophiliac”. I guess the two Living Death axemen didn’t want to reveal their true identities by pulling out another standout progressive/technical thrashterpiece with their main act although chronologically it would have been released a year before the one reviewed here. Or maybe it was a stipulation made by Ralph Hubert if the guys wanted to continue working with him… no one can tell, but under thick disguise or not this enigmatic line-up knew very well what they were doing although the self-titled debut, compared to what followed suit, remains an inauspicious, rough-around-the-edges beginning. Most likely this first effort was intended as a vehicle for the musicians to synchronize their endeavours cause everything here clicks and clocks like on a finely polished machine.

“Age of Agony” can actually pass for a track from “Protected from Reality” with its angular guitar rhythms, but before the listener starts finding more telling similarities between the two fractions commences a pleiad of twisted schizoid riffs and some totally surreal clean singing the performer behind the mike definitely sticking to more conventional vocal lines than those unique tirades of Torsten Bergmann save for a couple of isolated siren-like wails. “True Lies” stirs a whirlwind of intelligent hectic riffage with eccentric slower breaks interrupting the unorthodox carnage which also knows its more melodic side with great leads provided on top of several more relaxed variations. “Confession of Madness” confesses everything within the span of 4-min with the steel technical riffs and these stupendous melodic decisions that indeed may come out of the hands of some demented musician like the album godfather, the vocals equally as eclectic with their inordinately high-strung nature. “Hatred” is a more frenetic symphony with psychotic rifforamas pricking the listener’s psyche served in a more aggressive, also more dishevelled, fashion the eerie Erich Zann-like melodies creeping underneath to a highly unnerving effect. The “Interludium” is a classical all-instrumental experimentation the guitars taking over from the introductory violin tunes, duelling with them throughout to a smattering operatic effect achieved here for the first time. Yes, classical music was brought to the fore to side with metal for the creation of more intriguing symbioses in the future…

“Prophecy” is schizophrenic amorphous thrash at its most chaotically headbanging, a great eventful shredder with a nice chorus, a consistent stomping main motif and a fading hallucinogenic ending. “Memories of Tomorrow” is a relatively more linear piece with pounding rhythms and prominent bass Hubert making himself heard with brasher strokes which blend with the staple otherworldly melodies to a smattering cosmic effect the latter enhanced by another superb weird epitaph. “I, King, Will Come” is perhaps not a total surprise, having in mind “Black Sabbath” from the debut, but this one is the most eclectic doom metal hymn you’ve never heard with the most offbeat chorus imaginable on top of super seismic, ship-sinking riffs which march unperturbed without any more technical embellishments. “The Final Deluge” brings things back to normal with a vortex of perplexing, intricate guitars the bizarre music accompanied by an even stranger chorus; this vocalist, the name Wolfgang Borgmann, is the perfect fit to the least ordinary musical panorama with his dramatic pathos which at times is simply laughable in its serious naivety, but it can’t be any other way with regards to the multi-layered execution. The “Epilogue” is just two min of avantgarde balladism the singer participating again in the most melancholically emotional manner, to the best of his abilities.

In the wake of the technical/progressive thrash metal craze, which the band single-handedly inaugurated with their debut a year earlier with a little help from Coroner’s “R.I.P.” perhaps, this opus stood proud in the company of Deathrow’s “Deception Ignored”, Target’s “Master Project Genesis”, Destruction’s “Release from Agony”, Coroner’s “Punishment for Decadence”, and Realm’s “Endless War” and Blind Illusion’s “The Sane Asylum” from the other side of The Atlantic although the progenitors had to see themselves in the midst of really furious competition the rise of all these old and new talents almost instantaneous the scene having woken up for those new alien sounds very quickly. This Lovecraftian myth sounded the most schizophrenic and the least predictable of the lot, but it was at the same time the least accessible as well, and with the astounding level of musicianship flowing out of the other mentioned works the band really had to outdo themselves each time in order to keep their colleagues at a distance. Hubert had ideas in abundance, as he so well proved in the years to come, but so did the others, and constant evolution was mandatory in all departments with this particular field filling up with other skilful musicians even faster than the up-and-coming death metal one.

The follow-up honed the band’s hyper-active, super-intricate approach also increasing their classical infatuations, and consequently sounded more compelling and more meticulously structured that its predecessor. Regardless of his charmingly attached style, Borgmann couldn’t quite pass for a truly impressive singer, and he had to go replaced by Doug Lee from the American power metallers Siren. With this new much more versatile throat the upgrade was imminent resulting in some musical adjustments, too, and “Dances of Death” was a masterpiece of classical-infused progressive thrashing the title-track a conceptual centrepiece comprising eight parts plus an 11-min rendition of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on a Bare Mountain” served at the end, a standalone encyclopaedia of classical-prone multi-faceted thrashing. Nothing could stop the band now from producing their magnum opus which “Kaleidoscope” was, the culmination of the whole progressive/technical thrash metal kaleidoscope which surprisingly found itself in the midst of another pool of geniuses, the German wave which continued churning out amazing albums for another couple of years. Ralph Hubert and Co. stood defiant among these young upstarts all the way till said wave’s demise, closing the first stage of their career with the downbeat non-metal farewell “Pictures at an Exhibition”.

Hubert brought his gang back in 2007, and they have been going strong in the new millennium with a string of four stellar albums so far. The machine seems to be working perfectly; the Erich Zann descendants keep creating some of the finest, most memorable moments from metal history, and until the Ancient Ones don’t make another descent upon our Earth plane, there will be no end to their intimidating, mind-scratching, schizophrenic visions.

Bayern



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. Age Of Agony (Prologue)
2. True Lies
3. Confessions Of Madness
4. Hatred
5. Interludium (Begging For Mercy)
6. Prophecy
7. Memories Of Tomorrow
8. I, King, Will Come
9. The Final Deluge
10. Epilogue

Bonus Track:
11. The Gnom

Track 5 "Interludium (Begging For Mercy)" is an adaptation of 'Psycho: Suite for String Orchestra' composed by Bernard Herrmann for the Alfred Hitchcock film.



..::OBSADA::..

Gordon Perkins - batterie & percussion
Björn Eklund - bass & accoustic guitar
Rolf Stein - guitar & back vocals
Vincent St. Johns - guitar & back vocals
Keil - vocals & stick




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nIF2G_Yjco



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