AUGURY — Fragmentary Evidence (review)

AUGURY — Fragmentary Evidence album cover

Album · 2009 · Technical Death Metal

4/5 · 2011-12-08
Conor Fynes

'Fragmentary Evidence' - Augury (8/10)

If there is any place one could go to in Canada for good metal, it would be Quebec. Sure, there are good bands to be found in every province of this vast nation, but Quebec seems to have the greatest tendency to churn out some of North America's greatest metal outfits, with a particular focus on death metal. Augury is a band that is coming out of a well-established scene for all things brutal and heavy, and their second album 'Fragmentary Evidence' takes heir epic take on technical death metal and brings it to a much wider audience. featuring cameos from a number of Quebec's most noteworthy metallers, 'Fragmentary Evidence' may not have the pleasing shock of 'Concealed', but their penchant for quality leaves on with this one, and with this, they plant themselves as one of North America's most promising young death metal acts.

Like 'Concealed', there is quite a bit of variety on 'Fragmentary Evidence', quite a bit more than what one may usually expect from a death metal record. The variety of riffs can leap from brutally technical death riffs, to more melodic licks, jazzy bits and a few proggy tapping sections. Not a most original innovation in progressive death metal to be sure, but Augury makes these aspects work with greater dynamic and excitement than most. On a personal note, I find myself typically amazed by the musical skills and abilities of tech death musicians, but find the music itself to be lacking. Augury is an exception to this rule, always throwing new things at the listener, right to the final track. The heavy sections here don't have the distinctiveness to keep from sounding the same, but they are far from monotonous, as the band is constantly changing up their pace, energy, and sound.

Included here are the vocal presences of singers from such bands as Cryptopsy and uneXpect, both bands that have also impressed me greatly in the past. Sadly- and especially in the case of the uneXpect vocal contribution- the appearance feels more like a gimmicky cameo than anything, jumping in for a few seconds, hinting at the sound of their origin bands, then disappearing for the rest of it. The main vocals here are a little more varied than your typical death metal dose, although they are not nearly as varied as they were on 'Concealed'. The vocals tend to lead the band into whatever specific style they are doing; there's even a song here where it sounds like vocalist Patrick Loisel is taking Augury on a pirate metal adventure through high seas. That being said, the real highlight here is what Augury can do with the lighter, mellow moments of the album; specifically the variety of different things they do with it.

'Concealed' will be a tough album for Augury to beat, but 'Fragmentary Evidence' certainly does not disappoint; we have here a very well-produced and exceptionally performed progressive death metal album, with plenty of little tricks up its sleeve to distinguish it from the legions of other bands.