Mekong Delta (band)

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Mekong Delta is a German progressive/thrash metal band, formed in 1985.

Contents

[edit] History

The line-up and the history of German band Mekong Delta was to be the best kept secret in the world. It was started by a group of German metal musicians and it was supposed to outshine all independent releases musically. The thought that German musicians would not be accepted internationally made the people of the project decide to keep everything about the band a secret. The name Zardoz was rejected followed by the acceptance of the name "Mekong Delta", named after a riverbed in Vietnam. The entire project was started by Ralf Hubert, sound-engineer of Warlock, Steeler and Living Death, and owner of the recordlabel "Aaarrg".

The first demo's are recorded with the following line-up:

  • Jochen Schröder (ex-Rage) – guitar
  • Peavy Wagner (Rage) – bass
  • Jörg Michael (ex-Rage and Paganini) – drums
  • Wolfgang Borgmann – vocals

Jochen Schröder did not fit in and was soon replaced by both Living Death guitarists Reiner Kelch and Frank Fricke. When Peavy leaves the project, Ralf takes the bass guitar himself. Since the band was shrouded in mystery, they all took on fake names and the line-up of the debut album looked like this:

  • Björn Eklund (Ralph Hubert) on Bass/Acoustic guitar
  • Gordon Perkins (Jörg Michael) on Drums/Percussion
  • Rolf Stein (Frank Fricke) on Guitar/Backing vocals
  • Vincent St. Johns (Reiner Kelch) on Guitar/Backing vocals
  • Keil (Wolfgang Borgmann) on Vocals/Stick

The debut album 'Mekong Delta' was released in 1987, produced by Ralf Hubert himself. For the shortly thereafter following Picture Disc "The Gnome", Jörg Michael was replaced by Patrick Duval (Uli Kusch) because he was touring with his current band. Ralf and his men return to the studio around new year '87/'88, and record the concept album 'The Music Of Erich Zann', with the same line-up and again produced by Ralf. Due to, or because of, the mystery (there are no pictures of the band at that time, everyone is using a false name, and there have been no live performances), the band's big breakthrough stays out. Many people think that this album could well be the last Mekong Delta album ever made.

Nothing’s further from the truth. Vincent St. Johns (Reiner Kelch) was replaced by Mark Kaye (Uwe Baltrusch) and at the end of 1988, Mekong Delta releases the 12" 'Toccata' and in the spring of 1989, "The Principle Of Doubt" hits the stores. Rolf Stein (Frank Fricke) then leaves the band to concentrate himself on other musical styles, and the band decided not to replace him as Uwe was able to play all guitars alone. Another long period of silence followed. This period was used to compose a "Rondo for Rockgroup" (now, better known as ‘Dances of Death’). While recording the album, Keil (Wolfgang Borgmann) leaves the band because he couldn't identify himself with the material of this album. He was replaced by the American Doug Lee, former singer of Siren. These men finished recording the album "Dances of death (and other walking shadows)". It included a metal arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's tone poem Night on Bald Mountain. After recording this album, Gordon Perkins (Jörg Michael) leaves the band and was replaced by Swiss drummer Peter Haas. The mystery around the project was fading and in October 1991 they started touring parts of Europe, including the Netherlands and Germany. The CD 'Live at an exhibition' was recorded on the 13th of October in Germany. Guitarist Georg Syrmbos was hired to be able to perform the songs live.

"Kaleidoscope" could be seen as one of their best efforts to reach new fans. This album also contains a coverversion of 'Dance on a vulcano' by “Genesis”. The 'Classics' collection contains all classical pieces Ralf has ever arranged for the band. The only classical track missing on this album is 'Sabre Dance', which can be found on the "Kaleidoscope" album.

In 1994 Mekong Delta releases 'Visions fugitives'. The compositions are somewhat similar to ‘The Principle of Doubt’ and ‘Dances of Death’. On this album is also a classical oriented track in six parts.

Then came a silence of 2 years which resulted in the release of "Pictures at an Exhibition". On this album the complete piece of classical composer Modest Mussorgski is arranged for the band and has been included twice. The first 16 tracks are just played by the band, while the last 16 tracks include the band and orchestra. Because the album is completely instrumental, Doug is not mentioned on the album. Shortly thereafter a CD-ROM was released with all kinds of information about Mekong Delta, Modest Mussorgski and lots of other things interesting to fans.

In 1997 and 1998 the first six studio albums are being remixed by Ralf Hubert and re-released. Some albums were greatly improved, others were hardly changed. Then everything went quiet. Rumors started circulating that Ralf had fled to Greece or Turkey, or even that he had died. Fortunately Ralf just needed a break from the music business. At the end of 2005 he was brought in contact with guitarist Peter Lake from Swedish metal formation ‘Theory In Practice’ and things started speeding up again. At first Peter Haas agreed to return as drummer of the project, but resigned later. One-time former member Uli Kusch stepped in as a drummer. A singer was being sought and enough material seemed to be ready for a new album. The singer came in the form of former Crows and Wolf Spider singer Leo Szpigiel. This lineup of the band recorded the album Lurking Fear, which was released on August 31st, 2007.

[edit] Line-up

  • Leo Szpigiel - Vocals
  • Ralph Hubert - Bass
  • Peter Lake - Guitars
  • Uli Kusch - Drums

[edit] Past members

  • Wolfgang Borgmann - Vocals (1987-1990)
  • Jochen Schröder - Guitars (-1987)
  • Frank Fricke - Guitars (1987-1989)
  • Reiner Kelch - Guitars (1987-1988)
  • Georg Syrmbos - Guitars (1991)
  • Peter "Peavy" Wagner - Bass (-1987)
  • Jörg Michael - Drums (1987-1990)
  • Uli Kusch - Drums (1988)
  • Peter Haas - Drums (1991-2006)
  • Doug Lee - Vocals (1990-1994)
  • Uwe Baltrusch - Guitars (1989-1996)
  • Peter Haas - Drums

[edit] Discography

  • Mekong Delta, 1987
  • The Music of Erich Zann, 1988
  • The Principle of doubt, 1989
  • Dances of Death (and other walking shadows), 1990
  • Live at an exhibition, 1991
  • Kaleidoscope, 1992
  • Classics, 1993
  • Visions Fugitives, 1994
  • Pictures at an exhibition, 1996
  • The Principle of doubt (Ambitions), 2005
  • Lurking Fear, 2007

[edit] External links

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