Argus-Boldy stride the doomed

Cruz Del Sur

2011
Pennsylvania's Argus return with their sophomore effort. I was very excited as I prepared to hear this one because I was quite impressed with their 2009 self-titled debut. They sure don't disappoint this time around either. If I had known exactly how good it ws going to be I would have hurried even more to give it a listen. The basic sound is similar to the Sword only more of a traditional doom sound at the center of their music. Argus got the message that doesn't always to be extremely slow. Tracks like Curse of the world and Wolves of dusk are real ear melters with a tight fisted charge. Although they never lose sight of ulling out some solid melodies.Former Penance vocalist Brian Ballich has a tremendous voice and uses it to guide and change the mood of the songs as needed. The title track has a main riff that reminds me some of Slough Feg and it just drags you along battering your sense all the way. Durendal has more tempo changes than some of the other songs and they show their ability to pull so much out of a slow passage. The 11 minute plus "Pieces of your smile" delights in trudging along pulling you down, but then they rip you back and forth with various twists and turns of sounds pounding at you. In fact every song on this album is as good as I could have hoped for. I was taken by their debut, but the follow-up is even better. The ideas are fleshed out more is their a greater sense of confidence this time around. Easily one of the best albums of 2011 thus far.