MEKONG DELTA — Wanderer on the Edge of Time (review)

MEKONG DELTA — Wanderer on the Edge of Time album cover

Album · 2010 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2011-02-11
AtomicCrimsonRush

Heavy Conceptual Technical Thrash from Mekong Delta.

Following the very metal heavy sounds of Lurking Fear in 2007, Mekong Delta have produced a conceptual album with excellent tracks encompassing a whole framework of ideas based on Biblical revelation, the apocalypse and malicious characters who desire to destroy the universe. There are a plethora of prog elements including Intermezzo's, overture, and 7 movements before the classic finale. The classical music terms are a part of the experience, and Mekong Delta are no strangers to operatic styles.

The musicianship is absolutely brilliant. Benedikt Zimniak and Erik Adam are a force to be reckoned with on guitars. Ralph Hubert is terrific on Bass, and Alex Landenburg is a wizard on Drums. There are textures of light and dark, tension and release throughout. Acoustic passages on Concert Guitar interludes, and then fret melting lead work and blistering riffs on tracks such as "King with broken crown" (Le Diable) // Movement 4.

The vocals are very well executed by Martin Lemar, at times clean and gentle, such as on the balladic "A certain fool" (Le Fou) // Movement 1, and then at other times powerful and strong, such as on "The 5th element" (Le Bateleur) // Movement 2, which features an amazing lead solo worth checking out. It sounds often similar to the vocals of Dio with touches of Symphony X sliced up with Dream Theater styles, but Mekong Delta have their own definitive identity. It is full blown prog metal, without the often used orchestra sounds of past albums.

It gets thrashy in tracks such as "The Apocalypt - World in shards" (La Maison Dieu // Movement 3 (5:43), aggressive vocals and tech thrash blastbeats at a blistering pace. The time sig changes are great with incredible drumming skills and guitar finesse.

There are instrumentals such as Intermezzo (instrumental) // Movement 5 that begins with heavy riffs and then squealing guitars that builds to a fortissimo of quick tempo distorted rhythms . The time sig shifts towards the end with clanging repetitive guitars and ascending chords. The screaming vibrato of lead guitar is a key feature.

This merges to Interlude 4, another instrumental with fast metal riffage and speed drumming. The fret melting guitar work is the band at their best.

More acoustic and gentle vocals follow on "Affection" (L'Amoureux) // Movement 6 that builds to more forced music. This is only short and leads to the even shorter Interlude 5 Group, which is a repeated lead riff and spacey effects getting faster and leading eventually to "Mistaken truth" (Le Hérétique) // Movement 7. This features a strong riff and great vocals, the time sig is odd and well accomplished. The guitars change from clean to distorted, the atmosphere is dark and it changes time sigs often. The lyrics are apocalyptic about searching for truth and experiencing the nightmare of destructive forces. There are speed double kick drum embellishments at times, and a terrific lead break consists of speed picking, hammering and string bending squeals.

It all culminates in the Finale, that features a strange time sig, pounding drums and the relentless riffing blastbeats, as well as incredible lead soloing. It has a false ending too and then more fiery tech thrash work suddenly blazes away, till finally the acoustic fades it out.

In conclusion, this is one of Mekong Delta's fastest most aggressive albums, and is hung on a strong thematic framework. The songs work well together, the intros and intermezzos are nice breaks from the longer pieces. I look forward to more from these technical metal wizards.