ARGUS "Boldly Stride the Doomed" (2011)

band: Argus album: Boldy Stribe the Doomed year: 2011 genres: heavy/doom metal origin: USA

LET THERE BE DOOM, LET THERE BE TECHNIQUE

Hailing from Pennsylvania, Argus is a relatively young band that has gained a well crowded number of fans in the underground metal scene. “Boldly Stride the Doomed” is the title of their second offering released this year. Honestly, I didn’t run into their first album released at 2009. That album had a quite good acceptation into the scene. And now, it seems like those who already knew this jewel band are pretty excited with their new material.

Argus plays very well worked heavy/doom metal from the old school. The band seems to be clearly influenced by such legendary icons of doom metal like Solitude Aeturnus and Candlemass. In fact, Argus features the amazing former vocalist from Penance, Butch Balich. This is interesting enough to check out this album. “Boldly Stride the Doomed” has the feeling of traditional doom metal from the 80’s, which seems to be alive once again these last years, regarding the amount of good traditional doom metal albums that have been released these years and now “Boldly Stribe the Doomed” is added to the list.

Despite the clear relation with traditional doom metal sound, Argus has points of originality, especially when we realize about the grand work made on guitars. Argus’ sound is driven by guitars and high vocals. There are amazing riffs, some of them in the traditional groove, but some others are quite complex, like rising from a progressive metal song. Moreover, Argus does not seem to have complexity as the main goal of their music, like Confessor used to do. Riffs from songs like “Fading Silver Light” and “Wolves of Dusk” are a taste of well executed progressive guitars (some said Oversoul?). Furthermore, Argus shows their gifts as guitarists by playing wonderful solos, like the one included in “The Ladder”. Another extra element to the traditional doom metal sound is the eastern groove driven guitars in “Durendal” as well as in other tracks. However, remember that Solitud Aeturnus also had some similar elements. Drums are played from mid to down-tempo. Take a look at epic 11 minutes length song “Pieces of Your Smile”, it begins with slow drums, similar to classic “Black Sabbath” song (of course, by Black Sabbath), guitars sound heavy and the song progresses to a mid tempo rhythm with outstanding riffs around minute 9. Vocals are also well executed, while they are not so high, they sound really good and fit exactly with the kind of music that Argus manages.

The overall production of this album is wonderful and, personally, I find this release as one of the best of the year. This kind of bands remind us that there will always be good doom metal albums, they worked hard and the result is a wonderful peace of well executed music. Argus remains as an underrated band, hope with “Boldly Stride the Doomed” more metalheads come closer to their music. I widely recommend this album for every fan of heavy metal and doom metal genres.

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