ITP REVIEW: AUGURY: FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE

BAND: AUGURY (MONTREAL, CANADA) GENRE: PROGRESSIVE/TECHNICAL/ DEATH METAL LABEL: NUCLEAR BLAST RELEASE DATE (S) : 7/17/09 (EUROPE), 8/11/09 (NORTH AMERICA)
PREVIOUS RELEASES (CATALOG): FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE (2009-NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS), DEMO (2006), CONCEALED (2004-GALY RECORDS)

BEST RELEASE: FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE (2009)


TRACKLISTING: AUGURY: FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE:
01. Aetheral
02. Simian Cattle
03. Orphans Of Living
04. Jupiter To Ignite
05. Sovereigns Unknown
06. Skyless
07. Faith Puppeteers
08. Brimstone Landscapes
09. Oversee The Rebirth

ITP RATING: **** PRODUCTION: **** SONGWRITING:*** 1/2 PERFORMANCE: **** 1/2 Montreal, Canada's AUGURY struck me as one hell of a brutal and unique death metal band. AUGURY are as tight and brutal as ORIGIN and (within previous releases) as unique as UNEXPECT with flashes of technical and jazz fusion. AUGURY caught my attention with the bands 2004 release, "Concealed" featuring a female soprano vocalist, (whom is no longer in the band) and some very tight musicianship. AUGURY are journey men musicians, playing in well known Canadian bands SPASME and QUO VADIS. So here at ITP we have AUGURY's latest release "FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE" the bands debut on NUCLEAR BLAST. AUGURY's "Fragmentary Evidence" opens with the track "Aetheral" featuring some tight riffing, good blast beats as the bass is heard audibly, and prominently in the mix: 1:15. "Aetheral" features death and barking vocals, the dawg barking is a minor annoyance bringing a 'core (BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME) feel to AUGURY's arsenal. Still, the riffing is good, and tasty, not overtly technical as the riffing has an old school death/thrash metal feel. "Simian Cattle", kicks off with a bass line, and blasts off to some technical progressive metal, and who is AUGURY's bass player..? Dominic Lapointe, owns, I mean, damn, this dude lays waste to everything on the fretless. "Simian Cattle" features some awesome progressive death metal textures, CYNIC would be proud. At 2:29 "Simian Cattle" features clean "gang vocals" often featured in power metal, a better choice than the barking 'core vocals. Yeh, this be some tight shit. At 3:59 "Simian Cattle" breaks down into slower experimental tones, before blasting you into progressive death metal orgasm..Oh, just get those horns up. "Orphans of Living" blasts in fast and tight, and AUGURY are some talented musicians. "Orphans of Living" features a two vocalist assault (death and screamed) and some melodic breaks until the annoying clean barked vocals come in. "Jupiter to Ignite" segues slowly and softly, until the band enters into a tight, brutal pace. Again, at 1:12 AUGURY experiment with some OPETH like soft dynamic passages, well done as that indeed adds some diversity to AUGURY's arsenal. After some brutal riffage, at 3:50 "Jupiter To Ignite" segues into a beautiful acoustic passage, (mandolin?), as one can only say, "Wow that was brutaliful", and then BAM, the chaos of technical, progressive death metal explodes..Until again, "Jupiter to Ignite" slows down the brutality at 5:04 for an acoustic progressive jazz passage, as the song is back and forth on the progressive/acoustic jazz vs. death metal brutality making "Jupiter to Ignite" one hell of a progressive death metal opus. "Sovereigns Unknown" drips in with some technical guitar riffing, progressive jazz metal textures, arpeggios and sweeps and SURPRISE, clean vocals, as eventually the death metal vocals back up the clean vocals. The three pronged vocal assault on "Sovereigns Unknown" is quite unique with death, clean sung, and screamed vocals, and some uber tight musicianship.. Not a riff is to be missed on all of FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE as the time changes are played tightly with the drumming, as so many riffs pass in the blink of an eye. AUGURY's "Skyless" enters with some progressive metal textures, and excellent bass playing, untill :45 where the riffing takes a heavy, and raw turn and at 1:28 a darker excursion balanced with tight as hell progressive metal riffing and this is not to be missed. Every riff, and time change on FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE is just exquisite and mesmerizing, very profound. I can do without the clean vocals, perhaps a balance of death and screamed vocals instead. Wow, I'm impressed. AUGURY's "Faith Puppeteers" is heavy death grind hell, with an old school 90's feel with a singular progressive metal jazz excursion, as playing that alone will induce arthritis. "Brimstone Landscapes" enters the listeners conscious from an acoustic realm until :52 when the band blasts in with clean sung vocals at a mid pace, at 1:55 AUGURY pick up the pace with death vocals, and crushes the listener with brutality and dizzying time changes. Until, oh wow, what was that? At 3:13 AUGURY's "Brimstone Landscapes" steps into UNEXPECT territory with a weird "unexpected" BUNGLES on 'shrooms like break, and if ya haven't heard of the Canadian band UNEXPECT, do check them out if AUGURY's take on them doesn't inspire ya, lmao. AUGURY's awesome "Fragmentary Evidence" closes with it's longest track (11:11) "Oversee The Rebirth" as the track enters in ambiance with some AWESOME jazz fusion fretless bass and clean melodic vocals, at 2:04 "Oversee The Rebirth" makes a left turn, slowly progressing from prog metal to death metal with screamed and death metal vocals, speeding up the pace. At 4:11 AUGURY's "Oversee The Re Birth" segues into some excellent jazz fusion, I mean this is orgasm inducing as the song segues back into tight death metal. At 6: 59 and at 8:39 AUGURY bassist Dominic Lapointe, carries the band into awesome progressive jazz fusion excursions, epic and awesome in it's execution, with good clean vocals."Fragmentary Evidence" closes with raw brutality ending a unique, brilliant listening experience. While most of the tunes on AUGURY's "Fragmentary Evidence" don't feel like songs, this Canadian ensemble meld tight, technical, progressive death metal with original ideas including jazz fusion and acoustic excursions. AUGURY are far more progressive and less pretentious than the bands Canadian metal cousins UNEXPECT. Gone are the classical, female soprano vocals, as AUGURY balance brutal AND melodic death metal as "Fragmentary Evidence" features a very competent progressive tone to the bands technical arsenal. The production on AUGURY's Fragmentary Evidence" is of quality and these guys must have carpel tunnel syndrome as every riff is exquisite (and there are plenty of them per song) as each tune on "Fragmentary Evidence"has it's own unique progressive death metal identity. I honestly don't know what it is about Canada, but our Northern friends have a quality extreme metal scene, every Canadian band is very unique, and interesting in it's own way. Perhaps it's the socialized health care, Gay marriages have been legal in Canada for a while, and the Canucks are on the fore front of a very good , and perhaps underrated extreme metal scene. I think prog geeks whom actually like TROO death metal will eat up AUGURY's intricate riffs for years and it would be nice to see this band on a DREAM THEATER (US) Progressive Nation tour. Canada's AUGURY are talented musicians and a progressive band as "Fragmentary Evidence" is epic and ambitious in it's scope, and in a year of QUALITY (technical) death metal releases, AUGURY released one the best CD's of 2009, I have carpel tunnel syndrome just listening to this. ITP RATING: **** PRODUCTION: **** SONGWRITING: *** 1/2 PERFORMANCE: **** 1/2 Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-