When I first heard it, I must have been 14 in 1975. We didn’t usually call them by the full name, for some reason they were just ‘Ash’. we did this shortening on two word names all the time. ‘Sabbath’, ‘Purple’ ,‘Heep’ not for Gentle Giant though for some reason.
So, Ash it was. When I came to them, the Live Dates record was popular at school with us Rock Lads, though not in wider society it seems as it didn't chart, though it did go silver. Weird because my memory is that it was a record in most friends' collections. Anyway, because of its popularity, I’d heard some of the tracks live before I heard the studio album. And on Argus is where they find their greatest expression.
I didn’t understand at the time how radical and innovative it was. Hovering in its own liminal space between prog, folk and hard rock, it shaped twin-guitar heavy rock for far more successful bands.
I think it’s the blend of melodic phrasing and harmonies, combined with the hard riffing and ecstatic soloing that I loved, exemplified by the shimmering chords of Sometime World, opening as a bluesy ballad with liquid blue lead guitar and a soulful vocal which shifts to the major and a high-paced second section with a rollicking bass line leading the way along with strident harmonies and solid rattling drumming. The lead guitar bursts in with a melodious tone ringing out. Chords are brilliantly tightly played but the lead breaks take it to another level. It made me want to play guitar. And I swear he;s so into it that he gets carried away at one point and the guitar squeals and growls before emerging sweet and elegiac.
The whole record is like that, full of those moments when you have to pick up the air guitar. Who hasn' t played one at a rock disco when Blowin’ Free comes on?
Production-wise it sounds amazingly well defined and as though played live. By the time Throw Down The Sword, the last track, comes to a magnificent dual lead guitar climax it leaves me feeling wrung out. The shifts of tempo within songs and the moving melodies, plus the soaring emotionally charged lead guitar make it perfect and really moving too. It never gets old and always sounds clear and fresh. A timeless record to take us through the last 54 years
