Label: Decca/MCA (original release) & Madfish (reissue)
Release date: 4/28/1972 (original release) / 4/14/2023 (reissue)
Produced by: Derek Lawrence
Album length: 44:43 min
Genre: Art Rock
Rating: 10/10
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 without ever locking themselves into any one of them (were they a prog 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 those flavors of rock on their albums and in their songs. So the easiest move is to file them under art rock, alongside a few other “oddballs” who just don’t fit anywhere. When “Argus” came out, it was a massive turning point for the band. This is the album that finally bumped them up into the big leagues, the giants of rock, and brought them well-deserved commercial success (including a number five spot on the UK charts). On it, the band finally managed to nail their own recognizable sound and fuse all the elements listed above into one hugely effective formula, which gave birth to an unforgettable classic and one of the best rock albums of all time.
Believe it or not, most of the songs on this album are hugely important for the development of progressive music and especially power metal. At a time when metal was only just taking its first shy steps, Wishbone Ash were already firing off real epic power metal on “Argus”, backed by fantasy-medieval lyrics of the kind that bands like Iron Maiden, Helloween, Saxon and Blind Guardian would later develop to the bone, and that a million of their “clones” fail to imitate today. Most of the key musical ingredients you hear in those bands today were discovered right here on this album (epic choruses, three-part harmonies, melodic, harmonized twin-guitar solos, which are 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 that sense, “Argus” (unintentionally, of course) marks the birth of epic, melodic metal, the very thing that so many power metal bands, who peaked along with a heap of their “emulators”, are now breaking their teeth on while apathetically copying themselves. And yet, even though this album is their musical peak, Wishbone Ash didn’t stay stuck in that one style. Plenty of British bands in the ’70s were mad about fantasy-medieval themes, but it was the duo of two guitars and their arrangements, which always left plenty of room for open jamming, wild solos and three-part melodies, that above all 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 woven into perfect interplay with melodic hard rock, which is the heart of this record. Where the songs on the previous two albums were wildly different from each other stylistically, this time they merge all of those elements, with the first half having a somewhat more “traditional” band sound, while the second half, which is the real knockout and basically a genuine musical revolution (these are the albums I love most!), is dominated by epic hard rock that was revolutionary for its time (I’ll go even further and say metal).
Just look at the nine-minute opening gem “Time Was”, which, with its quiet acoustic guitar intro, vocal harmonies and strong interplay between the band members, conjures up a special kind of magic in an instant and tells the listener right away that 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, the band’s trademark, and carries the song off in a completely different direction. “Sometime World” is a gorgeous power ballad of many faces, with a great intro and a tasteful 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 vocals reign supreme, easily ranking him among the better singers in melodic rock and beyond. “Blowin’ Free” has an interesting, almost quirky opening riff. Here the band returns to its more compact, basic side, where their strong blues influences and boogie rhythm come to the fore. It’s a kind of warm-up for what comes next, one of the best songs in the band’s history: “The King Will Come”.
The second half of the album, with its aforementioned fantasy epic, 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 and Ted Turner playing the best solo he ever put down on the five albums he recorded with the band (counting the double live album), is pure triumph. No less stunning is the gorgeous romantic ballad “Leaf and Stream”, with beautiful guitar arpeggios and a mystical, authentically Celtic-pastoral atmosphere. It’s one of those quiet, emotional (Martin’s vocals deserve a big share of the credit here too) and reflective songs that grabs the listener with its intensity in a heartbeat. You’ll get goosebumps, plain and simple. Next up is one of the most magnificent rock songs ever created.
“Warrior”, with its instantly recognizable melodic-metal main and opening riff, is a fairy tale for every fan of epic melodic rock and metal. After the initial burst comes a tense atmosphere, where Martin shines in full light with his mystical, mysterious vocals. The song is pure epic power metal that heavily influenced bands of that kind, with Iron Maiden at the front of the pack, 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 strength a person has to learn to use in order to become free. Everything is pure triumph, from the epic vocals and vocal harmonies to, not least, the three-part harmonies of both guitarists.
The closing epic “Throw Down The Sword” is, in my opinion, their best creation ever, and Wishbone Ash in all their melodic-metal epicness, which they never repeated, with twin-guitar solos that always take the listener’s breath away. Three-part 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 got the foundation for their own work. Don’t forget Martin’s excellent vocals either, hugely epic, joined in the chorus by vocal harmonies. The outro of the song and the closing harmonized 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 those guitar harmonies with such feeling and soul that once the composition (and with it the album) ends, the listener just wants to hear the album again. Over and over, again and again.
The current reissue of this album also includes three live bonus tracks (basically a very rare EP with 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 belong on an album that is an exceptional, self-contained whole, and they even slightly spoil the majestic feeling the closing epic “Throw Down the Sword” leaves the listener with.
“Argus” is the album 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 the excellent cover, which shows a medieval soldier standing guard on a misty mountain morning, gazing at a flying saucer. One odd thing about this cover is that almost every edition of the album released on CD came without that 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 loaded with fantasy-heroic themes). These days there’s a bit of 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 clearly knew its limitless potential, and unlike most of today’s (especially metal) bands, who do exactly that, it didn’t want to make carbon copies of its most glorious work. Still, plenty of prog rock fans continue to regret the stylistic turn the band made after this legendary album (on “Wishbone Four”, 1973), despite its great commercial success.
And finally, a 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.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
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)
Lineup:
Andy Powell – lead guitars on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, rhythm and acoustic guitars, vocals on tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, & 9
Ted Turner – lead guitars on tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 10, slide guitar on track 3, rhythm and acoustic guitars, vocals on tracks 1 and 3
Martin Turner – bass guitars, vocals
Steve Upton – drums, percussion
Guest musician:
John Tout – organ on track 7
The second LP of the remastered reissue contains the live album “Argus Live” on yellow vinyl (a selection of recordings from the “Alexandra Palace & Memphis” venues
