Mekong Delta
Lurking Fear

THE REVIEW

By doing some quick calculations, we realize that we have in our hands a new album entirely composed by Mekong Delta, a good thirteen years after "Visions Fugitives". In the meantime, we could listen to "Pictures At An Exhibition" in 1996 (compositions by Modest Mussorgsky arranged for band and orchestra) and, in 2005, after a long silence, the collection "The Principle Of Doubt (Ambitions)".

So the moment is important because - as certainly known by those who have been part of the metal world for about twenty years and thus did not start following the genre only after its "new" evolution - we are in the presence of a historical name for the musical relevance displayed. To describe what has been the stylistic projection carried out by the German band so far, always led by Ralph Hubert, we can talk about a sound that finds its roots in technical thrash (originating from both the US and Germany), with a progressive setup and a clear classical underpinning (to be understood both as classical music and, in part, classic metal). All combined with "challenging" writing and a melodic taste that never becomes clearly catchy, but rather epic and baroque.

"Lurking Fear" is a complex work that meets the characteristics described above, with a touch sometimes cinematic and sometimes grandiose (in this, recalling Sabbat's "Mourning Has Broken", their last work, the one without Martin Walkyier on vocals). In light of this description, which might lead listeners to guarantee thoughts about the instrumental prowess and creative abilities, but at the same time suggest a certain predictability, the absolute greatness of Mekong Delta lies in the fact that the ten songs (including three reworkings of classical pieces, as well as the "Star Wars" theme) never offer secure reference points, relying on constantly shifting structures, in both the riffs (tight and heavy) and rhythmic parts (Uli Kusch's drumming - Gamma Ray, Helloween, Masterplan, etc. - is excellent), intricate and elaborate, but fully usable. Among passages with a symphonic flavor, atmospheric ones, and long parts in constant progression/aggression, one witnesses the materialization of a very beautiful album, for applied knowledge and feeling.

Unconventional, atypical, and alienating.