Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Label: MCA Records
Release: 1972
Rating: 5/5
Wishbone Ash are without a doubt one of those bands you just can’t pin down or squeeze into a genre box. They explored every possible side of early-’70s British rock in their music, without ever clinging tightly to any one of them (were they a prog rock band in the vein of Yes, space rockers like Pink Floyd, a hard rock outfit à la Led Zeppelin, or just a boogie band like Ten Years After?). You’ll find all of these different flavors of rock on their albums and in their songs. So the easiest thing is to file them under art rock, alongside a few other “oddballs” who just don’t fit anywhere. When it came out, “Argus” was a hugely important turning point for the band. It’s the album that finally bumped them up into the higher league – the giants of rock music – and brought them well-deserved commercial success (including a number five spot on the UK charts). On it, the band finally managed to find their own recognizable musical identity and to fuse all those elements listed above into a hugely effective formula, one that gave birth to an unforgettable classic and one of the best rock albums of all time.
Believe it or not, with most of its tracks this album is hugely important for the development of progressive and especially power metal. At a time when metal was only showing its first shy beginnings, Wishbone Ash were already blasting out real epic power metal on “Argus”, backed up by fantasy-medieval lyrics of the kind that bands like Iron Maiden, Helloween, Saxon, Bilnd Guardian and so on would later take to the extreme, and that a million of their “clones” unsuccessfully imitate today. Most of the key musical ingredients you find today in the music of those bands were discovered right on this album (epic choruses, triple-harmony melodies, melodic and harmonic twin-guitar solos – the band’s main trademark – fantasy lyrics and cover art). Wishbone Ash were one of those rare bands that were way ahead of their time. In a way (unintentionally, of course), “Argus” marks the birth of epic and melodic metal, the very thing that many power metal bands, who peaked together with a whole swarm of their “emulators”, now break their teeth on while apathetically copying themselves. And even though this album is their musical peak, Wishbone Ash didn’t stop at this one style. Plenty of British bands in the ’70s adored fantasy-medieval themes, but it was above all the duet of two guitars and their arrangements – always leaving enough room for open jamming, wild solos and triple melodies – that made this album such a masterpiece.
The album has no weak spots. All the blues and jazz influences that dominated the first two albums are finally fused here into perfect interplay with melodic hard rock, which is the heart of this record. Where the songs on the previous two albums were stylistically all over the place, this time they successfully combine all of those elements, with the first half having a slightly more “traditional” band sound, while the second half – the real triumph and basically a genuine musical revolution (this is the kind of album I love most!) – is dominated by what was, for the time, revolutionary epic hard rock (I’ll go even further and say metal). Right away there’s the nine-minute opening gem “Time Was”, which, with its quiet acoustic guitar intro, vocal harmonies and strong interplay between the band members, instantly creates a special kind of magic and lets the listener know straight away this is no ordinary album. The intro is followed by a transition where the guitar duo of Andy Powell and Ted Turner demonstrates for the first time that signature guitar sound of the band, their trademark, and carries the song off in a completely different direction. “Sometime World” is a gorgeous power ballad with many faces, an excellent intro and a tasty bass line accompanying the twin solos of both guitarists, who rip through the strings with incredible speed and melody like it’s nothing. Here, as on most of the album, Martin Turner’s brilliant epic voice reigns supreme – without doubt one of the better singers in melodic rock and beyond. “Blowin’ Free” has an interesting, almost cheeky opening riff. Here the band returns to its more compact, basic side, where their strong blues influences and boogie rhythm come out too. It’s a sort of warm-up for what follows – one of the best songs in the band’s history – “The King Will Come”.
The second part of the album, with its aforementioned fantasy epic feel, builds on the first half and shows a completely different face of the band. The bombastic classic “The King Will Come”, with its metal riff, where Ted Turner plays the best solo of his five albums with the band (and I’m counting the live double album here), is pure triumph. No less stunning is the beautiful romantic ballad “Leaf and Stream”, with gorgeous guitar arpeggios and a mystical, authentically Celtic-pastoral atmosphere. It’s one of those quiet, emotional (and a big share of that goes to Martin’s vocals too) and reflective songs that grabs the listener in an instant with its intensity. You’ll get goosebumps, plain and simple. Next comes one of the most magnificent rock songs ever created. “Warrior”, with its recognizable melodic-metal central and opening riff, is a fairy tale for all fans of epic melodic rock and metal. After the initial rush comes a tense atmosphere, where Martin shines in full light with his mystically mysterious voice. The song is pure epic power metal that strongly influenced bands of that kind, with Iron Maiden at the forefront, so it’s not only one of the best songs in rock history but also one of the most important. The central message of the lyrics is about the force a person has to learn to wield in order to become free. Everything is pure triumph – from the epic vocals and vocal harmonies, not to mention the triple harmonies of the two guitarists. The closing epic “Throw Down The Sword” is, in my opinion, simply their best creation ever, and Wishbone Ash in all their melodic-metal epicness, which they never repeated, and where the guitar duo’s solos always take the listener’s breath away. Triple harmonies of extraordinary melody flow all over the place, and it’s not hard to figure out where the melodic metal bands of the first half of the ’80s found the foundation for their own creations. On top of that, let’s not forget Martin’s excellent, hugely epic vocals, accompanied by vocal harmonies in the chorus. The outro of the song and the closing harmonic solos in it are among the best I’ve ever heard in rock music. The song is simply so good that words alone can’t describe it. Powell and Turner play their guitar parts with such feeling and soul that once the composition (and with it the album) ends, the listener flat-out wants to hear the album again. Over and over, again and again.
The current reissue also includes three live bonus tracks (basically a very rare EP of three live songs recorded at a concert in Memphis, which came out on the B-side of the “Blowin’ Free” single). They somehow don’t really belong on an album that’s an outstanding, self-contained whole, and they even slightly spoil the magnificent feeling the closing epic “Throw Down the Sword” leaves the listener with.
“Argus” is an album that most of the band’s fans today see as their crown jewel, the album that put the band among the legends of rock. The band still plays most of the songs from this album at their gigs, which clearly shows how important it is to them. One of the reasons the overall mystique of this album is even greater is its excellent cover art, which shows a medieval soldier on guard, in a mystical morning surrounded by mountains, looking at a flying saucer. One of the odd things about that cover is that almost every release of this album on CD came out without the flying saucer. Why, I have no idea, but in my opinion this “conspiratorial” fact only deepens all the magic and mystery of the album. There was also a lot of talk in the past about whether it’s a concept album (mainly because of the second half, dominated by songs heavily charged with fantasy-heroic themes). Today there’s a certain bitterness left over that the band never recorded an album that could rival the greatness of Argus. It simply remained out of reach. On the other hand, the band obviously knew their boundless potential and, unlike most of today’s (especially metal) bands who do exactly that, didn’t want to make carbon copies of their most magnificent work. Still, many prog rock fans continue to lament the stylistic about-face the band made after this legendary album (on “Wishbone Four”, 1973), despite its great commercial success. And finally, one more fun fact: this album was voted best rock album of 1972 by British rock fans and readers of Sounds Magazine, ahead of albums like “Close To the Edge” (Yes), “Thick As a Brick” (Jethro Tull), “Foxtrot” (Genesis) and “Demons And Wizards” (Uriah Heep), another album that successfully built a bridge between music and fantasy.
Lineup
Martin Turner – vocals, bass guitar
Andy Powell – guitar, backing vocals
Ted Turner -guitar, backing vocals
Steve Upton – drums
Production
Derek Lawrence
Tracklist
1.Time Was (9:42)
2. Sometime World (6:55)
3. Blowin’ Free (5:18)
4. The King Will Come (7:06)
5. Leaf and Stream (3:55)
6. Warrior (5:53)
7.Throw Down The Sword (5:55)
Bonus tracks on the reissue:
8. Jailbat (Live At Memphis)
9. The Pilgrim (Live At Memphis)
10. Phoenix (Live At Memphis)
Album length: 48:33
