A wise man once proclaimed “Canadian metal, just obey, on your weak sounds (new plastic metal) we will prey...” and very true sentiments too from the land that has a lot to make up for after giving us Celine Dion! Many bands coming from Canada are of a highly technical nature, Rush, Gorguts, Voivod, Cryptopsy to name just a few and this is certainly where Augury fit into the grand scheme of things, mixing death and progressive metal together with aplomb. An augur was a wise man of ancient times in ways a seer who interpreted things from the flight of birds. A modern day equivalent would have been watching the pigeons outside the O2 arena and letting people know that it was not worth queuing up all night for tickets, as the performer would not be around to play the dates (sorry topical subject as I write these words). They were very important in Roman times and perhaps we should reinstate them to Government now, hell they couldn’t do a worse job than those running things at the moment!
Before I get completely off topic, Augury the band have obviously done something right as they only have one previous album ‘Concealed’ 2001 and have been snapped up by Nuclear Blast for this their second. Mixed by Kataklysm guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais and mastered by the legendary James Murphy it is obvious that this is going to sound top banana and it instantly pummels you a new one as opener ‘Aetheral’ ploughs in. The first track gets you acclimatised to the sound, it starts as brutal death but evolves into some guitar licks that have that progressive feel that you almost recognise but can’t quite put your finger on. Later some complex widdling also occurs and it is very evident this is not going to be an exercise in pure brutality but is also going to proffer spheres that tech lovers are going to get off on.
There are loads of guest vocalists over the course of the album, my promo does not let me know who is where but amongst them are Sven from Aborted, Youri from Cryptopsy and others from Unexpect, Agony and Obscene Crisis. It is on second track ‘Simian Cattle’ when you are surprised by some sudden clean croons, not a million miles away from Emperor I guess, especially with the convoluted guitar riffing going into all manner of dexterous swoops around them. Perhaps as things go on this could be claimed to be one of those albums that is a bit too clever for its own good, especially at 55 minutes long it almost makes the casual listener giddy. It is no doubt one of those that beard stroking musos are going to get in a froth over and caught somewhere in the middle I can certainly appreciate it but again am not sure if it’s one that’s going to find itself played to death.
It’s also one of those albums that you can tick boxes of inspiration on and the likes of Cynic, Death and Nocturnus, through to Meshuggah and early Opeth as well as many of the aforementioned bands can comfortably be name-checked here. Indeed by ‘Jupiter To Ignite’ the guitars are playing some very memorable licks which owe much to Opeth’s Orchid as well as Emperor’s Prometheus, still its both enjoyable and a well handled tribute, with music this complex claims of plagiarism really tend to fly out the window.
On the evidence of repeated listens this is certainly fragmentary and it’s the sort of album you notice something different with each time you listen to it. For example I was just taken in by a sweeping clean chorus that would probably have been at home on a Tyr album and then there is a sudden snatch of female vocals thrown in the pot too. It’s all going on and if you want to be wowed and befuddled this is certainly worth checking out.
http://www.myspace.com/augury
http://www.augurymetal.com
