Mekong Delta
The Music of Erich Zann

Mekong Delta – The Music of Erich Zann (1988)

A stroboscopic photo, an inverted pyramid, a group of 5 men shrouded in doubt.

A name taken from the famous Vietnamese river, musicians hiding behind pseudonyms, music unattainable and invincible on all fronts.

These are the Mekong Delta, a Teutonic band formed in 1985 by bassist, composer, and producer Ralph Hubert, aka Bjorn Eklund, owner of the label “AAARGH”.

Convinced that the international metal scene would not accept German musicians on the same level as their overseas counterparts, Hubert and company chose stage names and began their musical journey marked by a very peculiar thrash metal, revisited with freshness and personal style in the exciting self-titled debut album (1987). Having become tight as a band, they immediately got back to work and delivered just a year later what is perhaps the most original chapter of their career, “The Music Of Erich Zann”. Inspired by the famous H.P. Lovecraft story, this album is perhaps the ultimate manifesto of the most intricate and technically complex metal, and if until now you believed that “...And Justice For All” (Metallica, 1988) was unassailable, you will have to quickly reconsider. To cite one track over another would be almost offensive to the work, given its poignant and intense atmosphere that never falters and never shows weakness. The story unfolds around the figure of Erich Zann, a mute musician possessing otherworldly powers, put into music by his viola and who, as in the original story, sacrifices himself to save humanity from a power too great and dangerous to even be named. Criticisms of the mass media, references to the powerful “Great Old Ones,” gods of the Lovecraftian world, and the feeling that music truly is the only vehicle capable of saving the world we know from evil, permeate the entire work. Hubert, aware of Zann’s sacrifice, which ultimately represents every musician, references the theme from “Psycho” in the track “Interlude,” and rips through the record grooves with bass solos never before heard by any living soul. Indeed, the bass is the conductor’s baton, the beacon in the night, the torch to follow in a world about to be destroyed. Hubert leads the group towards musical peaks that had only been dreamed of until that moment. His companions, like him, play “new.” There is no past in the music of Mekong Delta, there is no present nor future. It is a bullet shot into our brain that disintegrates and synthesizes us into the aforementioned “5th dimension.” Once you listen to the album in its entirety, you can no longer live as though nothing happened. If you are looking for hope for a world that is falling apart, this is the point from which to start again.

Line-up:

Bass and acoustic guitar: Bjorn Eklund (Ralph Hubert)

Drums and percussion: Gordon Perkins (Bjorn Michael)

Vocals and stick: Keil (Wolfgang Borgmann)

Guitar and backing vocals: Frank Fricke (Rolf Stein)

Guitar and backing vocals: Vincent St. Johns (Reiner Kelch)

Produced by Ralph Hubert,

arranged by the band

Aaargh records