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Boldly Stride The Doomed is the second full-length album by US Heavy/Doom Metal group Argus, released in 2011. The album features ten tracks of music, the first and last of which can be considered intro and outro pieces respectively.
These two pieces (Abandoning The Gates Of Byzantium & The Ruins Of Ouroboros) are very similar, and feature some good acoustic guitar work and fits in perfectly with the overall atmosphere of the record. The outro is pretty much a variant on the intro, featuring some electric lead guitar work over the acoustic passage. Nice stuff, but it’s the eight songs in between these tracks that showcase what a great album Bolding Stride the Doomed is.
As the acoustic intro fades out the second track, A Curse on the World, starts with a drum roll and then launches into a twin guitar attack that tips more than a hat towards the sound made popular by the likes of Iron Maiden, but there are also some more aggressive and heavy riffs early on that bring the band’s doom influences to the fore. The band sounds like Iron Maiden gone Doom Metal. The riffs are really great and carry the song well. Upon first listen it took me a few tracks to get used to the band’s vocalist, Butch Balich, but I had gotten used to his vocals by about half way through the album and could then hear how well they fit with the music that Argus delivers, and I enjoyed the album very much overall based on initial impressions, but it definitely got better with further listening as I become familiar with what to expect from it. Balich’s powerful vocals are distinct and clear and work excellently within both the traditional heavy and doom metal aspects of Argus’ music. Early songs like A Curse on the World and Wolves Of Dusk set the standard for the rest of the album high, and the band manage to keep the quality up to that same standard throughout.
Although the band quickly shows that they have their key elements that make their sound what is it, they also produce an album where all the songs have an identity of their own. This means that Boldly Stride the Doomed never gets boring. Tracks such as the aforementioned A Curse on the World, Wolves of Dusk, and later tracks such as 42-7-29 and the epic eleven minute piece Pieces Of Your Smile all strike me as particular highlights of this very strong album however, though as with any quality release, there’s no track here that you can go wrong with.
Overall with Boldly Stride the Doomed Argus have crafted a near perfect gem of an album that always has me itching to give it another run through just as the closing moments of final track The Ruins Of Ouroboros fade out. It is highly recommended to fans of both traditional heavy and doom metal, especially those who like a twin guitar sound in their metal. A highly recommended 2011 release.
(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 9.6/10)