1998-1999

Argon was formed in summer 1998 when vocalist/guitarist Ari Hentunen joined forces with drummer Jori Manninen and bass player Mikko Myllymäki. Purpose of the band was originally just "to play something", so there weren't yet any own songs around and band didn't have name. In this stage band played mainly Deep Purple covers. As time passed, playing covers started to be bit boring...

Ari started to write songs for the band during winter 1998-1999. First songs leaned towards 70's/80's heavy metal with some tendencies towards power metal. First line-up changes were coming around april '99 when vocalist Jarno Saarinen was added to lineup. Another change came in may '99 when Mika Rintanen started as a new drummer and Jori moved from drums to guitar for a little while. Jori eventually retired from the band in june '99. During autumn '99 more own songs were written, so there wasn't need to play covers anymore - no covers exist in Argon's set even today. Band's style started to develop towards mixture of metal and alternative rock...
2000-february 2001

Band started to experiment with sequencers and results were heard in 4 song demo released in february '00. Prior that demo there actually was one demo made in september '99, but it suffered from lousy production and wasn't released. After recording the february '00-demo there was still the problem that band didn't have a name, so name Argon was chosen for the band soon after the demo was ready to be released.

The demo attracted some interest and first gigs were made in may/june '00. Mika moved from drums to guitar/backing vocal-duties in may '00 and drummer Timo Rintanen (Mika's little brother) was added to line-up in may '00 to give more power to band's live sound. Some new songs were made during autumn '00 and there was one gig in December '00. Timo left the band in february '01 due his tight working scedule elsewhere in Finland and his place was filled by Sammy Lee-skinsman, Pekka Rinne.
march 2001 - february 2003

Sequencers and alternative rock tendencies were entirely abandoned during spring '01 and songs started to be more complicated and longer - forget pop, welcome metal and prog-rock! So, all these Power/thrash/death/progressive metal influences within band started to surface within Argon's songs and we're still on that road - going heavier and more complicated day by day... Another change was coming in may '01, when Jarno left the band. There wasn't any additions to line-up this time, because Mika took over lead vocal-duties after Jarno has left.

Another demo was made in june '01 and couple of its songs were released in mp3.com. Released songs were "The Duel" and "Far beyond reach". More songs were written during autumn '01, but there were line-up changes coming once again and then things started to turn sour...

Pekka left the band in January 2002 to fully concentrate to his Sammy Lee-duties and Mikko left the band due moving elsewhere in Finland to finish his studies. Their replacements were Jari Eronen on drums and Sammy Lee-bassist Tony Juurinen. Tony was helping Argon until new bass player was found. Another addition came in february 2002 when Jarno returned to band and Mika returned to backing vocal-duties.

Year 2002 was quiet time for Argon, no demos were made and songwriting froze quite totally this year due line-up problems. Autumn '02 showed another change in line-up when Toni also decided to concentrate fully in Sammy Lee - like Pekka had done some months earlier. Mika moved temporarily to bass/backing vocals-slot until replacement bassist was found.
february 2003 - 2004

New bass player was found in March '03, when Ari's old friend Marko Back joined Argon. Jarno left Argon again in june '03. Argon's drumseat seems to especially challenging position: during 2004 drumseat's holder has changed three times for one reason or the other. but FINALLY there seems to be much hope for a lasting line-up and new songs are amazingly quickly taking form and ready to be recorded. Yep, this line-up works like a swiss clock (goddamnit!) :)

As you might have noticed: Argon's line-up has been incredibly unstable due its members' side projects, living and working circumstances and other oddities, so you surely need a LINE-UP MAP to navigate through all these line-ups...
january 2005 ->

Believe it or not but during spring '05 a 4-song demo was finally made after couple dismal attempts during 2002-2004 and things are in really great shape in Argon-camp: first gig with this line-up was played in Hartola (28.05.2005) and that gig plus new demo seems to have spawned much positive feedback - so let's see how things start to roll forward during this year...