Toccata

Toccata means a baroque musical composition (usually for a keyboard instrument) with full chords and rapid elaborate runs in a rhythmically free style generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer. The question is what it has to do with thrash. But this is Mekong Delta. A slow build-up with shining guitar riffs before a thrashy drum beat kicks in. We get strange rhythms from everywhere and then bam, it’s just the guitars for a while; drums add to it, bass adds to it, back to guitars. The composition is strange, no doubt about it, and thrashy. It’s thrashy without aggression; it’s thrashy as in a virtuous display of capability to handle rhythms. Whatever that means.

What I tried to say is that the song’s an instrumental and focuses on rhythms, a few short riffs, then back to the more silent parts with percussion and bass solos. And that’s just the first song. Black Betty thrashes on with leads on top of heavy metal riffs. An excellent song but too short. Wolfgang Borgmann’s vocals are incredible. Interludium (part II) appears to be a symphonic filler (hey it can’t be an interlude at the end of the record) with strings circling between usual violin music and the more swaying movie-soundtrack kind of music. There are drum and percussion beats everywhere making it real punchy. All in all, the Toccata single is a rather good introduction to Mekong Delta. We have the strangest thrash, the more heavy metal kind of thrash and a classical tune as far as thrashy it can get without becoming metal. Excellent single, but too short.