(written by Islander)
According to The Font of All Human Knowledge: “The Argonautica is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only entirely surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from remote Colchis.”
We begin this way because the Argonautica is the basis for an ambitious concept album named Argo by the Italian band Harkane, which will be released by the Dusktone label on December 13th. As you can see, it’s heralded by a striking cover painting by Paolo Girardi.
But before we get to our premiere of the new album’s title track, we should share something else about the Argonautica, because that something else is part of the reason why Harkane drew upon it for their inspiration.
From the same source quoted above:
Their heroic adventures and Jason’s relationship with the dangerous Colchian princess/sorceress Medea were already well known to Hellenistic audiences, which enabled Apollonius to go beyond a simple narrative, giving it a scholarly emphasis suitable to the times. It was the age of the great Library of Alexandria, and his epic incorporates his research in geography, ethnography, comparative religion, and Homeric literature.
However, his main contribution to the epic tradition lies in his development of the love between hero and heroine – he seems to have been the first narrative poet to study “the pathology of love.”
That same source also explains that the Argonautica revealed the inner thoughts of the heroes, including their periods of depression and despair. You might keep these things in mind as you listen to the song “Argo,” a song (like the album) named for the ship that carried Jason and his crew through perils, despair, and triumphs.
In this song the sounds build slowly and mysteriously but then burst open in an attack of hammering drums, throbbing bass, harrowing howls, and guitars that dismally moan, eerily ring, and feverishly swirl.
The music is simultaneously fire-bright and bone-bruising, and seems to capture sensations of danger, fear, and frenzy. Heroic voices soar above the ravaging snarls, and the brilliantly shivering melody soars too, but also descends as the rhythms pound and jolt. The riffing is no less frenzied but seems more dire and grim — and that turns out to be a prelude to an even greater elevation in the sound.
The music rises in grandeur and expands in scope, and extravagant singing joins in with the harrowing growls, but although the song reveals eye-popping splendor, it’s still a frightening experience, and becomes more ominous as the drums pound and horn-like fanfares blast.
Listening to this elaborate and classically influenced amalgam of black and death metal, it’s worth knowing that, in the telling of Appolonius, Argo was built with the divine assistance of Athena, the first ship to sale the seas.
And it’s also easy to remember that as the Argonauts’ journey proceeds, Argo will carry the Argonauts past the call of sirens and through the narrow sea-channel between the crashing rocks of Scylla and the terrible engulfing whirlpool of Charybdis; the song seems to imagine that already, though these events come later in the album’s narrative.
Dusktone will release Argo on digipak CD and digital formats, and those are available for pre-order via the link below. They recommend it for fans of Behemoth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and SepticFlesh. Also below we’re including a stream of the previously released album track “The Oracles of Pelias.”
PRE-ORDER:
https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/argo
HARKANE:
https://www.facebook.com/harkaneofficial
https://www.instagram.com/harkane__official/
https://harkane.bandcamp.com/