Argus, Beyond the Martyrs: The Raging Spirits
It’s hard to discern just what Pennsylvania traditional doom metallers Argus intend with the title of their third album, Beyond the Martyrs. On a superficial level, one doesn’t think of a martyr as a place or a level of development to move past, but more than that, what’s supposed to be beyond them? What comes after that? Death? Devastation? Peace? Paradise? Which martyrs are the five-piece talking about? Is it a Christ figure? The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades? The closing title-track — which arrives eighth on the 42-minute Cruz del Sur LP with cover art by Brad Moore — is instrumental, so that’s not much help in terms of answering the questions of theme. Tracks prior like “No Peace Beyond the Line” and “Trinity,” “Cast out all Raging Spirits” and opener “By Endurance We Conquer” could be read to have elements of religious conflict to them — certainly conflict, anyway — but if there’s a narrative to Beyond the Martyrs, it’s not one as stated by the band so much as one that relies on the listener to plot its course. Maybe that’s on purpose. As a band, Argus seem much more interested in making solid and conscious use of the dual guitars of Jason Mucio and Erik Johnson and one of traditional metal’s most powerful belt-it-out voices in former Penance vocalist Brian “Butch” Balich, who delivers a standout performance here no less righteous than that on 2011’s Boldly Stride the Doomed (discussed here) and 2009’s self-titled debut (review here). Balich is a big part of carrying across the dramas of Beyond the Martyrs — as a standalone frontman should be — and the songs he’s working on top of set a memorable foundation from which to soar as he and a bevvy of guitar solos please, bassist Andy Ramage and drummer Kevin Latchaw hammering out straightforward structures to make “No Peace Beyond the Line,” “Trinity” and “Cast out all Raging Spirits” among the album’s several highlights. That is to say, Argus isn’t just about its singer, despite his considerable presence within these tracks, and Beyond the Martyrs finds a progressive balance between metal and doom that moves fluidly to cast its own personality somewhere between the two.
That process begins immediately with the deceptively catchy chorus of “By Endurance We Conquer.” Latchaw double-times it on his hi-hat to build up tension during the verse before the hook opens up. I don’t know whether it’s because of the arching militaristic bombast of the song or if it’s just the way the epic feel is crafted, but on first impression, “By Endurance We Conquer” stands out more for its voracious chestbeating and listing of virtues than for the delivery of the title line, but after a couple times through, the opener more than justifies its presence at the fore of Beyond the Martyrs, acting as something of a vanguard for the rest of the album to come. Already much of the record’s ethic is established: Balich carries a verse into a memorable refrain and the guitars answer back with accomplished solos and driving riffs underscored by strong, powerful heavy metal rhythms. As far as songwriting methodologies go, you could do a lot worse. “No Peace Beyond the Line” takes more time to unfold, but winds up in a fist-pump chug for its verse as the vocals tease the song’s greater hook still to come in a sort of bridge part that early on substitutes for an actual chorus. They cycle through twice before the guitar solo takes hold, and though it’s not until the last minute that they arrive, it’s the repetitions of “There is no/There is no/There is no peace beyond the line” that ultimately give the song one of Beyond the Martyrs‘ most lasting impressions, the vocals doing a layered call and response to deliver the title and finish with a nailed-it adrenaline-push yell. I don’t know where the line is, but there’s no peace beyond it. The issue is settled. After such a strong opening duo, some comedown is inevitable, but “The Hands of Time are Bleeding” fights redundancy by upping the doom in its slower early going and picking up to an effective linear build in both pace and overall rush. A stop at 3:09 is a startling transition, but I’d guess that was probably the idea, and the solo that continues after stands out all the more for it. Vocals return toward the end, and though the results aren’t quite as instantly engaging as with “No Peace Beyond the Line,” the change in mood is effective leading to “Trinity” which is arguably the darkest moment on the album.
Typified by the line, “Now I’m become death, the destroyer of worlds,” “Trinity” enters with a fittingly metallic progression and seems to recount the creation of the atom bomb. Lyrics like “A triumph of knowledge but what have we gained?/A pathway to peace or door to the world’s end?” underscore the moral position taken, and over an otherwise instrumental finish following more high-flying soloing, side A concludes with a spoken sample of J. Robert Oppenheimer as he recounts the testing of the Manhattan Project and quotes in a grave tone of voice from the Bhagavad-Gita the declaration that also served earlier for the chorus. It’s a strikingly grim ending for the first half of Beyond the Martyrs, and though it makes every attempt to revive the momentum, the subsequent “Four Candles Burning” is subsumed (at least in a linear, digital format) by the threat and tragedy preceding. Other than making “Trinity” the album’s closer, I don’t know how Argus might’ve avoided that, however. How do you take the biggest bum-out ever and then follow it with… anything? I don’t know. “Four Candles Burning” is the shortest cut at 3:48 and a straightforward, relatively upbeat NWOBHM-style metaller with grand riffing and creative double-kick from Latchaw, so out of context it’s not like there’s anything wrong with the song itself, it’s just that it’s hard to get moving again after “Trinity,” as effective as it is in what it’s trying to achieve. “The Coward’s Path” follows and is the only song on Beyond the Martyrs to top seven-minutes, beginning with a Candlemass-style sway (little faster) and providing a stretch of unmitigated traditional doom prior to its quiet verse and grandiose, neo-Iommian chorus riff. In its second half, “The Coward’s Path” moves to a faster pace, but the vibe is still doomed even as a second chorus emerges in the new progression and leads the way to yet more impressive soloing. But for the strength of its chorus, “Cast Out all Raging Spirits” would be an afterthought following “The Coward’s Path,” but instead it harkens back to the initial push of “By Endurance We Conquer” and “No Peace Beyond the Line” to demonstrate once again how much Argus have grown into a metal band rather than one necessarily beholden just to doom or, for that matter, to one over the other.
Finishing out, the five-minute instrumental “Beyond the Martyrs” spends most of its runtime metering out slower riffing and tossing off comparatively woeful solos, until finally in its last minute, a standalone strum and lead cap the song with echoing eulogy. After all the tumult and strife before it, I don’t know if there’s some single answer Argus are putting forward for what there is beyond the martyrs, but they end poignantly with the instrumental nonetheless, and if that’s a peace they’re portraying, it’s one hard won. I suppose that could be the meaning behind the title — that the question is its own answer and that what lays beyond so much pain is nothing more than having experienced that pain, that the fight, ultimately, isn’t worth it. That’s a far cry from “By Endurance We Conquer,” but perhaps the narrative of Beyond the Martyrs isn’t so much about moving a plot forward as guiding the listener through an evolution of ideals. I don’t know that, but let it stand as testament to the general evocative nature of the material that one’s thoughts might wander to these kinds of places. For me, it’s easy either way to be moved by the scope with which Argus have executed their third offering, and I’m inclined outright to say it’s their most memorable studio release to date, having trimmed off roughly 10 minutes from Boldly Stride the Doomed in order to fit an LP also doing a service to highlight the songs themselves. Some will no doubt be surprised at just how metal it is, but Argus take quick command of their aesthetic and are unrelenting for the duration. On Beyond the Martyrs, they go to their greatest lengths yet.
Maaaan, I NEED to hear it! Just kept playing the snippets on the above posted studio footage until we(wife and I)couldn’t stand it anymore! ARGUS is one of the best bands I’ve ever heard. I listen to a LOT of stuff, too, but whatever it is they do that works so well for me, it’s like magic. Metal being more, if not most, of the directional emphasis is fine, thanks!