Argonautica

On a structural level alone, what Sacred Blood attempt to purport on Argonautica is somewhat left-of-center, at least in the microcosm of chugging heavy/power metal. The band is definitely functioning on a Germanic wavelength concerning much of their primary armament, but these ramparts are reinforced with more typical "europower" minutiae in the form of booming orchestrations and the proclivity to experiment as opposed to hard-lined adherence to unspoken genre laws. One thing that must be addressed right away is the fact that Sacred Blood definitely live up to the epic power metal tag, and for a band that appears to throw out all of the rules right from the start, they are cognizant of the fact that they still need to adhere to the basics to get from point A to point B reliably.

And they do, at least most of the time. Let me take a step back and address the fact that while ambitious, Argonautica is undeniably a flawed release. Perhaps a victim of their own pretense at times, Sacred Blood oftentimes overreach their compositional clout, stumbling into the battle ill-equipped to deal with the harried array of expectation evoked by such lofty aspiration. The classically-inflected riffing redolent of acts like Wizard, Paragon and Stormwarrior is largely present and accounted for, but hooks don't come as swift and often as one may expect. I will hand it to the band for their implementation of Hellenic lyrical themes and aesthetics; certainly a stellar fit for the style. They also get all of their ducks in a row for the opening of the record, which totally sells the bombast and carries this through the first two tracks. "Legends of the Sea – The Epic of Apollonius (Argonautica)" is a keyboard-driven teaser featuring very cheesy narration, but the way it segues into "Hellenic Steel" is probably worth the price of admission on its own. "Hellenic Steel" itself is the true barnburner of the record, lumbering out of the gates in grandiose fashion with swells of symphony, and deferring to mid-paced, Manowar chugging to carry the verses. Really digging how the vocal lines thread into the orchestrations, and I tip my barbuta to Sacred Blood for this grand effort alone.

And although the band can't hope to maintain such momentum, they draw from some unexpected avenues to keep this war machine roiling along. As far as individual performances, I am really digging Aνδριανος's ability to craft some truly monumental sounding orchestrations. For playing all of the passages by hand as opposed to taking the easy route and programming everything, he remains the true standout of the record. The band is wise enough to implement the keyboards as much as possible, but also throw the burners on before the entire ordeal devolves into symphonic slush. This helps mitigate the dearth of reliable riffage, although a lack of strong dynamics and truly interesting licks remains a detriment throughout. This brings me to front man Kokmotos, who embodies the true dividing presence concerning Sacred Blood as a whole. He can belt out some real air-siren wails, but defers to a Sven D'Anna-esque rough bark for most of the album. His accent is thick and comical at times, damaging the serious character of the spoken-word bits (and there are many). Although endowed with an average tenor, his vocal lines are structured well in the context of the remainder of the songs, so it isn't all doom and gloom.

I liked Argonautica, but it definitely boasts an air of diffidence and inability to stick to what works. There are plenty of great tunes here, including "Hellenic Steel," Friend or Foe" and the entire "The Golden Fleece" movement near the end, but I can't chalk this up as a complete success. For an album written and performed by three dedicated minds, Argonautica sounds patently huge and definitely lives up to the breadth of scale evoked by the narrative. The band just needs to rein their troops in and find recourse to make another assault on power metal traditions, because I definitely see potential in a band that can bridge both genre extremes, an act that can sit proudly in the fog of war they so unabashedly celebrate.


Promo courtesy of The Metal Observer