Augury - Fragmentary Evidence

Augury's breakthrough debut album Concealed was so ferocious in its sound, that it could almost be described as unhuman. Appealing to extreme metal lovers all over Concealed was a solid technical death album, combining brutality with prog-leaning melodies. Now with their second album Fragmentary Evidence, Augury rains hell upon everything uninspiring and bland. And to keep themselves away from the dreadful pit filled with numerous monotonous sounding tech death bands that are rising alarmigly these days, Augury delves upon celestial themes to keep things alongwith their brutallly good music.

Additionally the overall tightness of the band since their previous work has increased, allowing them to push their abilities further and dig deeper to create complex yet perfect tracks. The music presented on this fine silver platter is amazing. Every single note appears to belong to the great whole, to the consistency of this album. Everything from Patrick's growls to Mathieu's killer riffs seem perfect. Moreover its the master skills of Dominic over the bass that gives he album a whole new technical dimension to place them upon. The basslines on Jupiter to Ignite and Oversee the Rebirth are some of the best you can come across in recent tech death albums.

Whereas tracks such as Simian Cattle and Orphans of Living, gives you a very strange fell but nevertheless the musicianship on these tracks are commendable. Besides theses vocally it goes from screams to death grunts and in Brownstone Landscapes bleak female vocals come around. But all these elements simply adds up to their terrific prowess and their music just wont allow you to nod in disapproval. Overall, the album is a curious, playful peak at the stars, a journey into the unknown, a metaphysical attempt to capture many different abstract feelings.

From Concealed to Fragmentary Evidence hasn't been a long journey but Augury have already started to prove themselves as the leaders of modern technical death scene. There's a certain indescribable appeal to the band that comes with them like no one else and yet not going ut of their way to be different. The album is so neat that it's likely to be the Traced in Air of this year but not recognised as such for years. Untill the next amazingly innovative sounding tech death album comes up amidst those many similar sounding mediocre bands, Augury's Fragmentary Evidence should keep you busy till then.