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Argus: Boldly stride the doomed
04/08/11 || gk
Americans Argus released their second album in May this year and almost immediately got a very enthusiastic thumbs up from most in the metal community. I’m not a particularly big fan of the whole retro traditional metal meets doom sound but the praise that “Boldly Stride the Doomed” got was loud enough for me to get curious and check this band out.
The album starts with the obligatory acoustic guitar intro before the first proper song sounds like a slowed down Iron Maiden circa “Powerslave”. It’s a decent enough start to the album helped particularly by Butch Balich’s strong vocals and some fine bass playing from Andy Ramage. “Wolves of Dusk” follows a similar pattern sounding like it could sit quite comfortably next to the last Grand Magus album. “Durendal” is another strong melodic metal song with Balich sounding like a louder Zak Stevens. In fact Savatage is a strong comparison here. Particularly “Hall of the Mountain King” except that the songs are generally slower. The band also do a fair amount of cheese on a song like “42-7-29” with its keyboards and a dramatic vocal performance from Balich. The title song feels like it wants to be a ball busting heavy fucking metal anthem but between the retro Iron Maiden guitars and the slightly off kilter vocals it falls a bit short while “Pieces of Your Smile” at over 11 minutes long is just too damn long to hold interest all the way through.
Another thing that I’m not entirely sold on is the mix. The guitars are front and center as it should be but at times Balich’s vocals and the bass seem too loud in the mix and the drum sound is generally muffled. Considering they have Kevin Latchaw who spent time with the superb Abdullah, behind the kit, it seems even more of an injustice that his drumming is as muffled as it is.
“Boldly Stride the Doomed” is not a bad album. Almost every song on here has parts that are great but in its entirety there’s something missing. These songs lack individuality and by the time you’re halfway through the album all the melodies fuse together into a blur. The next album might be a classic release from this band but on the evidence displayed here Argus still has some ways to go.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Cruz del Sur Music
- Website: Argus MySpace
- Band
- Burt Balich: vocals
- Erik Jhonson: guitars
- Jason Mucio: guitars
- Andy Ramage: bass
- Kevin Latchaw: drums
- Tracklist
- 1. Abandoning the Gates of Byzantium
- 2. A Curse on the World
- 3. Wolves of Dusk
- 4. The Ladder
- 5. Durendal
- 6. 42-7-29
- 7. Boldly Stride the Doomed
- 8. Fading Silver Light
- 9. Pieces of Your Smile
- 10. The Ruins of Ouroboros
