Description
Black 10 vinyl with gatefold cover
The vocalist Butch Balich from Penance (USA Classic Doom) has an amazing voice and those of you who doesnt know this will soon find out if you buy this disc. Argus was formed in Pennsylvania back in 2005 and when Butch joined them then things started to take a great shape. Argus is a band thats very well versed with the Maryland Doom Metal and Epic Heavy Metal scene. They released the very well written first demo simply called Demo 2007 as a download. Doom fans all over the world went absolutely nuts over the demo. This demo, besides the last instrumental track The Effigy Is Real, was then pressed onto this limited 10 vinyl with gatefold cover in the summer of 2011. The announcement on the demo, hear called Sleeping Dogs, is clear: doom shall rain once more upon our puny little heads. And so it does without further ado. After the initial short droning, one tasty son of a riff kicks in and fulfils the made promise by pounding its terse way into our far too cheery heads. It’s relatively fast for your typical doom riff, but nevertheless heavy and sinister. Soon after, Butch Balich joins in with a voice that has its roots firmly in traditional soil, yet does not refrain from wailing dramatically when the moment is right and -in the end- colours its overall texture with a quite epic hue. It’s basically by-the-book, not too epic, not too traditional, somehow oddly prototypically doom. Although only singer Butch Balich and drummer Kevin Latchaw seem to have any background in music filled with despair, riffs and the occasional bong, the band as a whole sounds like they pour out doom at a regular basis. As the song structures are generally solid to pretty good, I would lie if I said that I got bored at any point throughout this record. May it be meaty metal with a doom edge, a classic steadily waltzing procession to perdition or almost rockish arrangements; Argus knows how to package it all into their own idea of worshipping at the altar of Candlemass, Cirith Ungol, Trouble and the like. Mere high-quality solidity and sticking to a battle-hardened formula can be quite awesome in metal sometimes and this band is one more cogent example. Heed my words and lend this band an ear or two.
Track listing:
1. Sleeping Dogs
2. The Damnation of John Faustus
3. Bending Time
4. Eternity (Beyond Part One)