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Review Summary: Although “Intersections” is inherently inconsistent, it remains a great opportunity for fans to get acquainted with Mekong Delta and their magnificent past works and days. One thing that could be said with certainty for the Teutonic progressive thrash act of Mekong Delta is that their popularity is inversely proportional to their artistic output during the last thirty years. During the first days, the band was literally a floating underground collective of new and promising rock/metal musicians (for example, Peavy Wagner from Rage featured the early lineups) orbiting around producer/sound engineer/bassist Ralph Hubert, with band members getting in and going out on a constant basis. The band’s obscure/cult status was augmented by the fact that collective participants were held under contract in different outfits and hence used aliases so as to hide their real identity (for example, band’s mastermind Ralph Hubert appeared as Bjorn Eklund). By the time the band lineup got constant and for the next ten years (1987-1997), Mekong Delta released seven underground metal classics, whose style was a nontrivial mix of ‘80s speed metal, tech-thrash, ‘70s progressive rock and classical music.
Apart from their separate existence and development in the band’s discography, all aforementioned styles were diffusing to each other in ways simply unseen back in the day. Hubert’s infamous obsession with perfection, his ability to recruit the best men for the job, and his innovative interplay with the aforementioned styles during composition, got Mekong Delta a rather minute but infinitely devoted fan base which kept whispering the band’s name, even after their dissolution in 1997. In 2007, Hubert assembled an underground all-star lineup and released Lurking Fear, an album that captured the band’s in being excellently torn between tech-thrash and power/progressive metal, whereas in 2010’s Wanderer At The Edge Of Time, lineup was changed from its foundations and the pedestal leaned more to power/progressive metal than to tech-thrash, with mixed results. Two years after the release of Wanderer At The Edge Of Time, the band is releasing a collection of re-recorded songs from the first six Mekong Delta albums, in an attempt to reach out to new fans and get to set anew its current status.
Regardless of the styles adopted per album, the common constant for Mekong Delta is the same; i-n-s-a-n-e intensity and undisputed excellence in terms of song composition and studio performance, advanced level of communication between band members and an inexplicable notion of evil, dismay and melancholy soaking every song up to dew point, regardless of style. The question at hand lies in whether the current band lineup has recaptured the originals both in terms of technical and emotional context. The final answer depends highly on whether this compilation is a means of first contact with the band or not. As a whole, Mekong Delta do admittedly a great job in recapturing a significant portion of the songs in terms of arrangements and the overall atmosphere.
Given, however, the great detail and the complexity of the songs with respect to the arrangements and the overall atmosphere, old Mekong Delta material is a virtual landmine field and inevitably the current band lineup does make some wrong steps in it. Although the sound production is excellent, it somehow normalizes the overall character of all re-recorded material. With strict respect to the band’s performance, the normalizing effect is mostly present in the vocals of Martin LeMar which are largely different from those of past vocalists. As for the rest of the band, the avant-garde/progressive material from The Principle Of Doubt, Kaleidoscope and Visions Fugitives seems to suit today’s lineup better, as some refreshing touch is being given here and there. With respect to the thrashier and more complex material though (taken from Mekong Delta, The Music Of Erich Zann and Dances of Death), the band is plain decent.
In closing, in Intersections Mekong Delta were given the egg of Columbus and in order to make it stand on its own, they decided to break one edge of it against the table. If Intersections showcases something is that the potential of the current lineup is bigger with respect to the final merit of the last Mekong Delta studio album. Despite the fact that in its entirety Interception is inherently inconsistent, it still remains a great opportunity for fans to get acquainted with the band and its magnificent past works and days.
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Album Rating: 3.5
Constructive criticism is most welcome.
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haha, I've never heard anyone use the expression you start your conclusion out with; did you think of that yourself or is it more widely known and I'm just hearing it for the first time?
Good review in any case.
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Seems like only me and voivod like Mekong Delta ]:
Kill the Enemy is the best song
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
@Metalstyles
I just thought that the expression is appropriate for what the current Mekong Delta lineup is trying to do here.
Thanks for reading this.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
@ Ovrot
Prophecy and Dances of Death
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wait
it's a comp but it's still inconsistent
does that mean this band sucks or what
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dude you shoulda reviewed erich zann instead of greatest hitz
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Yeah, you see you're using this inverse proportionality thing again.
"their popularity is inversely proportional to their artistic output". How do you know? Where is your empirical evidence? You begin your paragraph with it, but then do not explain as to how or why, or offer an example any further than that they were underground during their infancy, yet if this is the case, would it not be directly proportional instead? With popularity = 1/artistic output you're essentially implying that as their artistic output increased, their popularity decreased, or vice versa, yet this isn't clarified.
Even though you're being figurative, it's not the sort of language ('term' in this instance) you should be using in critical analysis. There are other means of expressing such notions rather than reverting to mathematical relationships which are quite nebulous in a context such as this.
Other than that, and a few minor grammatical niggles, it's fine. Pos.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
it's a comp but it's still inconsistent
does that mean this band sucks or what
No the band doesn't suck, it's the idiosyncrasy of the original material and the band's current potential that do not permit the latter to excel in here.
That being said, the original material is treated with respect, hence the 3.5.
dude you shoulda reviewed erich zann instead of greatest hitz
It's not a typical compilation, since all songs in here have been re-recorded.
When I finish with the Voivod discog, I will start reviewing these guys.
"their popularity is inversely proportional to their artistic output". How do you know? Where is your empirical evidence?
Google the name Mekong Delta and you will find at least two or three reviews/articles which say that the band has not acquired the critical acclaim it deserved.
In fact this compilation is issued in SPV/Steamhammer, that is for the first time in their history Mekong Delta have a contract with a proper label that can distribute their music in a larger audience.
If that's not enough for you, check how many votes each Mekong Delta record has in Sputnik.
You begin your paragraph with it, but then do not explain as to how or why, or offer an example any further than that they were underground during their infancy
You are probably right but then again check again the Sputnik votes for the MD disgog. A lot of people come in and out of Sputnik and voting average for MD is below 10. Plus, if you have a band whose members hide their real identity and strictly remain during the first years as a studio project, wouldn't you say that the band is obscure?
And why are you scrutinizing the proportionality thing? It's just a figure of speech, end of story.
As for the grammatical errors, I will edit when the review editing procedure is fixed.
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Might check this out.
Good review, have a pos.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Do it TheNotrap this compi is a good treat that looks mildly pale when compared to the original material.
And then go for the full lengths.
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haha, I've never heard anyone use the expression you start your conclusion out with; did you think of that yourself or is it more widely known and I'm just hearing it for the first time?
The egg of Columbus refers to something that is generally seen as being amazing despite being really rather simple. How it came to be known as that particular expression is mentioned in the review, which kind of takes away from actually calling it that
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Ok, so let's just clarify.
During their infancy, they were obscure, and had a great deal of "artistic output". They stopped making albums on a regular basis, and therefore, that should signify an increase of popularity (less obscurity)... yet according to you, this isn't the case, despite the fact they have a label backing this release.
To summarise, according to your "proportionality" they should have been obscure during their infancy, because they made albums, and now that they aren't making albums they should be more popular. Figurative or not, it's contradictory to what you go onto describe.
In addition, you know how an inverse relationship functions just as well as I do; but do all of your readers? This is something which you cannot simply assume. I also shouldn't have to Google potential facts when it is you trying to prove a point with your review.
That is not to say I don't disregard what you are saying during the first paragraph, but you've used this concept before in a Pain of Salvation review, and it's no different here.
As for the grammatical errors, they are somewhat numerous, simply use of words and in particular adverbs. I'm not going to go into great detail with this because I have more pressing matters - like my assignment!
Peace.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
The egg of Columbus refers to something that is generally seen as being amazing despite being really rather simple.
The egg of Columbus also signifies that perfection is just another chimaira and in order to achieve something (make the egg stand), one must always sacrifice something else or make "mistakes" while doing it (break the egg)
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wut
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cooking with voivod
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lol
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If you wanna make some omelets....
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...with a mutant monster by your side...
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
To summarise, according to your "proportionality" they should have been obscure during their infancy, because they made albums, and now that they aren't making albums they should be more popular. Figurative or not, it's contradictory to what you go onto describe.
That's not what I wrote in the review.
Okay i say that thing about proportionality.
But in the following lines of the review I also say that the band's discog during its first 10 years of existence is excellent.
Only thing one has to do is connect the dots and grasp that the band's popularity was minute, whereas it should be much much larger.
I really fail to see your point of objection here.
In addition, you know how an inverse relationship functions just as well as I do; but do all of your readers? This is something which you cannot simply assume.
Maybe your are right, may you are wrong, I will edit that too when I have the chance.
I also shouldn't have to Google potential facts when it is you trying to prove a point with your review.
Then on a first level you have to take my written word for it, simply because I personally don't waste time and effort in writing bs about music or anything else whatsoever.
The thing about Google can be used on a second level. I always do it because I can't have enough info about something on most cases.
peace [2].
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