Argus

While typically lumped into the NWOBHM category, Argus were crafting songs in a rather different manner, perhaps a post-NWOBHM style, if such a thing exists. At first glance, everything here appears metal enough, and the opening moments of ‘Holocaust’ feature some nice, heavy riffing that make you think you’re onto something almost thrashy in nature, but after that things become very, uh, different. Far from your typical, 4/4-time NWOBHM fare, Argus was aiming for something more high-minded (dare I say ‘arty’). ‘Holocaust’ includes multiple tempo changes, clean, clear vocals, some synth effects, and some more heavy riffing in the bridge that, try as it might, cannot drown out that cowbell (!), and all this is packed into barely 3 minutes’ worth of song. Despite the odd mixture of traits, the band keeps the song in the road and it’s a pretty decent listen.

Flipside ‘The Widow’ is also meant to be more cerebral than your typical thrasher; you can hear nods to stuff like Led Zeppelin and Rush, but without sounding derivative. This is a slow, rather melancholy song about a woman’s struggle through life. It’s replete with samples of ‘memories’ in the background- children crying and laughing, wedding vows being spoken, etc. “I am Woman, hear me toil” seems to be the theme. The entire song has an electronic beeping in the background meant to simulate a life support system; it slowly gets faster and faster before ‘flatlining’ at the end of the song. While definitely a downer, it’s not a bad song.

The band seemed fairly capable of writing interesting compositions, and it’s a shame that they didn’t leave any other recordings behind, though trying to break big with this type of material in 1984, as metal was splitting into glammy and thrashy camps and the NWOBHM was long past its heyday, would have been a challenge. Still, one worth checking out if you like the more unique and unusual British bands from the early 1980s.

Holocaust ist ein ordentlicher Song mittleren Tempos mit etwas gewoehnungsbeduerftigem Gesang. Beim zweiten Durchlauf kommt er besser rein, also schnell auf zur B-Seite: The Widow ist eine Balade ohne Hoehepunkte. Recht schwach fuer einen spaeteren nwobhm Release und das viele Geld dass beim Kauf dieser Single faellig ist kann man getrost fuer was besseres verwenden.