Promo 2006

Musicians have been pushing in this direction for many, many years now. The fusion between any metal subgenre of particulary extremity and jazz, however in this instance; flavoured with a sufficient tone of folk. Truth be told, its fairly easy to spot a french-canadian band when you hear one. My quarrel with this is that Augury’s contemporaries have crossed the line between sophistocated and absurdly pompous. With “In a Flesh Aquarium” spewing out mangled structures of technically laced synthetics among several backing vocalists and untraditional live instrumentalists, Augury have limited their resources by losing their old female vocalist and focusing on a more practical approach to composition. Excellent move on their part. While “Concealed” was beautifully constructed, too much of the album was little more than a barrage of nonsensical riffage that weakly held it’s body within the overall continuity. Augury are at their best when they keep in mind that they need to give the tracks their own identity.


This new promo embodies that last remark to perfection. Picture the Augury we love, but thrashed out and far more concentrated. Concealed failed as a classic—so to speak—because due to the highly overbearing female vocals, which have no place accentuating death metal so abundantly brutal, and mish-mashed riffage that offers unapologetically poor cohesion, you’re basically dealing with an unstable dimension of music being laid on a fragile foundation of structure. Augury most definitely had their style down since the get-go. Now its time to expand on that. This is very promising indeed. “Skyless” sets the mood quit nicely for the remainder track, but it is also worth recognizing because right when they seem to be digressing from the very nice form they had going, they logically reprise the introductory solo sequence and bring solidarity back to the theme. “Faith Puppeteers” is just as good but even thrashier! Not a second on this cd dissapponted me.


The greatest fact is that they’ve managed to stay as pretentious for this long without resorting to all-out wankery. And the ultimate truth is that even with the furious, thrashed-out, technical, pretentious, mysterious and foreboding prowess these men have presumed, they can play their shit live! Next biggest canadian metal act. I guaruntee it.

After listening to Augury's first full length (Concealed) at least 30 times, I can say that they are definitely one of my all time favorite bands. But I was hesitant to listen to their newer stuff in fear of being disappointed.

I should have had more faith! While definitely a step in a different direction, this Promo shows that Augury is still headed in a good direction. My biggest gripe is the lack of Female Vocals. With Gabrielle no longer in the band, its obvious that some musical changes had to take place. One of these changes is the bands tuning. They've now tuned lower, so their sound is noticeably different.

Aside from the production quality suffering a bit, the bands icredible talents are all here. Patrick's vocals are quite possibly more brutal than on Concealed, and Forrest's unique bass style is all over these two songs. The drums carry the songs along nicely; The first track having more time changes than the second (which is as fast a song as they come.). The riffs are all very technical as well, and the solos are very well done.

Another gripe is the atmosphere that comes along with the songs. There were only a few parts on 'Skyless' that were memorable and thought provoking, while the second track (Faith Puppeteers) I had to listen to about ten times before I could remember anything about it.

Both songs are solid and unique in their own way and definitely worth a listen, but the band's new direction could also use some work. This promo only whets my appetite for their next full length, which I hope comes out soon.