I had my hands in soil. I had my hands in soil because I had committed myself to doing some outdoor landscaping work last month, mostly as an excuse to leave the din of the laptop. That first step outside does something to you, when all that is noticeable through mid day squinting is the static of a cicada. Canadian summers are often searing, humid, unfriendly. The second step makes it clear how the outside feels like a larger room, just more unpredictable. My hands were in that damp soil and my ears were being subjected to the “shuffle” function on my IPod. As I hauled the earth, the shrill aural implosion that starts a song called “Aetheral” began, progressed, and the world parallel to me cooled down a bit, softening it’s glaring fluorescence. These opening minutes of Augury’s new masterpiece, Fragmentary Evidence, contained links of composition and meaning, drawing a bizarre anti –banality from discarded plastic mulch bags and dried out dandelions. Before me, those riffs, those structures, those minutes, they organized it all. It felt good to be outside. This is what Augury does.

I was given the opportunity to ask guitarist and vocalist Patrick Loisel some questions regarding his band’s new album, the places they had left, and the spaces they were going. My God, I was interviewing a member of Augury, the band that wrote “Beatus”, and the whole landmark album following it; Augury exists as something of an archetype, with indisputable status in the metal community, and a staggering amount of tenure after only one (now two) full length(s). What builds that sound? What drives that success? Patrick attended a Jesuit College in Quebec as a younger student, and remembers; “There was some of that creepy monastery ambiance, so I have a firsthand experience with this.” Immediately the images expressed musically by Augury came to mind, images of ancient conspiracy, and of natural phenomena taking the guise of mysticism. The college would seem to be appropriate for giving an origin to the foreboding atmosphere of songs like “Nocebo”, and “Orphans Of Living”.  Regarding the college, this location was important in defining some key themes on Concealed’s opening track “Beatus”.

As being part native, the racial abuses of the college followed into his profession.

“I used to work as a teacher in Native Community Reserves in the North of Quebec and my colleagues were native. They were victims themselves. They themselves told what happened to them…  I talked with the people, and I almost met one of the priests who committed such things… Priests encouraged Aboriginals to have kids at 12 years because the bible says you have to breed and multiply. Still to this time, they are really screwed out of the land and trees by the companies surrounding them… Every million dollars given to the Indians is a drop in the ocean compared to what has been taken away from them.”

Social awareness in Canada has always walked a fine line between ambivalence towards its own historical misgivings and a projected superiority via progressive liberalism. Current Prime Minister Steven Harper (in a vastly publicized fashion) issued an official apology to Aboriginal Canadians in June of 2008; Residential schooling, an attempt to ultimately destroy all vestige of First Nations culture in Canada at the beginning of the 20^th century, was often conveniently forgotten in favour of building the benevolent reputation the nation propagates to this day.  The apology, while a necessity, has stirred little in a majority of Non-Native Canadians who would corroborate Harper’s gesture as another way of saying ‘Water under the bridge’. The issues are still on the table, and through Patrick’s experience, “It still lingers on”. The atrocity doubtlessly inspires the aggression inherent in Augury’s sound, it’s desolation, and it’s heartbreak.

The Canadian identity is a fundamentally different one in regards to any other Western nation, and even regionally, culture is vastly diverse from coast to coast. As a Montreal band, I asked about the national identity to be found in Augury’s method, and by extension, their own provincial influence.

“Myself, I am a big fan of a Canadian band called Spirit Of The West who used to play in the late 80’s and early 90’s…  They may have inspired me. We are more a ‘world band’ than typically a Canadian or even Quebec band. I am a really big fan of Arabic and Indian pop music, as well as classical… There is stuff you wouldn’t believe that I like.”, Patrick relates.

As Augury undoubtedly have a metal approach, with a healthy dose of death metal, hints of black metal, and a grind leaning, I inevitably broached the impact of these styles in the formation of the band.

“I read an interview with Scott Ian from Anthrax, and he said that people in that era wanted so much to sound like the first successful bands that made it, they ended up renting the same Marshall (amplifier) to record, so the same fucking amplifier appears on no less than seven recordings. I loved Anthrax… So starting  from there I tried to do something better… My favourite bands are Emperor, King Diamond and Akercocke, but I am not a Satanist at all. I did not emulate my idols, they may be ingredients that you might recognize… It is like Dismember; they were called ‘Baby Entombed’ in the beginning, but they went their own way.”

With a strong metal backbone, it was crucial to examine what other factors drew the members to the extreme side of things.

“I simply enjoy fast music. I never did it for the sake of being brutal or evil or grim.  Actually I am the “ungrimmest” person in metal. If you ever saw us live, I keep my glasses on…We are funny people, we joke all the time.”

While Augury’s image is not tantamount to overt darkness (likewise their sound), Patrick’s metaphor regarding those who practice martial arts, which by its nature is “Combative…Violent in a sense”, is complemented by their devotion to Zen and solace, seemingly typifying the approach Augury takes.  As someone who finds a profound level of sensitivity and splendour to be heard in songs such as “In Russian Dolls Universes” and “Skyless”, it was natural for me to pursue their interest in beauty.

“We love beauty in the extreme, in everything. I own 200 tarantulas. They are extremely scary to most people, but mine are neon pink or metallic blue… There is beauty in the extreme… There has to be melody. Extreme alone, bores me. Beauty alone? Bores me too.” I feel that the compassion to be found in Augury’s catalogue is not a transformational event, or the assumption that the heaviness yields drastically to gentleness… It is to be found at all times, in every facet of the composition, as, “Both coexist in our music.”

When performing live (a genuine setting to express the brutal approach of the band’s sound), the dynamic of the audience comes into play. “The audience is not a monolithic block of similar people… (We) have more obvious lines that you can just yell along to and let the emotions go. There are specific songs for that purpose, such as ‘Ever Know Peace Again” on the first album. I am writing a similar song for the third album, something more directly emotional.”

The sophomore full-length (and recently released) Fragmentary Evidence continues the work introduced on Concealed, aesthetically and lyrically.

“Both albums are continuous. Every song from both albums is like a face on the diamond… There is one big mystery and that links together all the facets of conspiracy theories, the occult, legends…”

Concepts to be found on Fragmentary Evidence have links to past lyrics, specifically the evocative “Universes Keep On Rebirthing” line, which makes a thematic return to prominence on the new album.

“You have the same process but from a different scale. Let’s say that you are a super-being from an alien planet and you can watch the solar system from afar, you can see the sun in the middle and the planets ringing around… Since the biosphere of Earth has a cycle of destruction and rebirth, every year we have a winter where everything dies and the spring where everything is reborn, the polar shifts reset to zero. I do not think humanity starting (with) an even plan towards evolution. There are so many religious writings about a second sun rising in the sky… People start losing their teeth and their hair… What is it? It is a nuclear explosion, but it happened five thousand years ago in the Gobi desert. It is described by Indian lords and even people in Northern Russia. We go back to the beginning; we hit two stones to make fire again. Up, up, we fall again. Whoever is able to carry on is permitted to build airplanes and computers so two generations later it becomes a vague remembrance.”

The band’s collective fascination with finding the truths behind conspiracy is also a vital part of Fragmentary Evidence’s landscape. The archaic nature of the lyrics deal with alternative histories and anthropological possibilities about the genesis of civilization relating to the Human race.  To interpret the wealth of information I was given; millennia ago, stronger lunar gravity had a physical effect on the species inhabiting our planet. In the fossil record, we notice similar versions of familiar species were much larger before humanity became a more active force of nature. “Everything went smaller, including humans.” Larger humanoid beings devolved and became domesticated by bourgeoning new peoples, eventually producing our modern species of Humanity.

“These are total humans but from a totally different adaptive environment. Simply, there is no magic, there is no supernatural, there are only natural things that we do not yet understand. If I were to ship you 200 years in the past, and you talked to people about television waves, electricity, and x rays, they would burn you like a witch.”

This imagery is resonant in “Simian Cattle”. If all the disparate theories and findings about the formation of our current ascent of progress have a common lineage, we can assume this is the ‘fragmentary evidence’ featured on the album.

Fragmentary Evidence, perhaps even more so than Concealed, is a musician’s album.

“It came naturally; actually, I am the one in the band who does not listen to much complex music… I love bands that have some complex parts, among many feeling parts. Any album that is just complexity end to end, I cannot stand it. We did not have an agenda to be technical… My own songs that I write are simpler. The two other guys add layers of little details. There are three composers, so we do not write the three the same way exactly,” Patrick says.

Dominic “Forest” Lapointe and Mathieu Marcotte are the other composers referred to.  With a stronger production than previous releases, Forest’s bass flourishes are audible, engaging and make great usage of the fretless tone. On Forest’s involvement: “Whenever (Forest) has access to his fretless bass, he will play it… He always tries to outshine himself. Practice, Practice Practice… Forest is our Cliff Burton. He actually has bass solos on this album.” Forest also masterminded the mini epic “Jupiter To Ignite”: “(Forest) wrote the harmonies and some guitar riffs.” As this song is densely written, it was natural to wonder how such a giant came to life.

“This one song took one third of the whole recording time. That is the only Augury song that I doubt we will be able to sing and play guitar live. Forest wanted me to have vocals that were offset with the beat, but that would mean my picking impact and voice impact were not synchronous.  I am totally lost in some parts of the song.”

The musical dynamic between Marcotte and Loisel seemed incredibly synchronous from the casual discussion regarding the writing process for Fragmentary Evidence’s successor (more on that later). “For me and Matt, we were in other bands, but we quit those bands to form Augury… Since the beginning, Augury has been our main thing, apart from earning a living.” The addition of drummer Antoine Baril has also had quite an effect on the band since joining last December after the departure of Etienne Gallo.

“Antoine was in the same position Etienne was when he joined. When Etienne joined Augury, he was not in a blast beat band before. Antoine as well was not in a blast beat band, and says “oh boy, I cannot measure up to (Etienne)”, I look at him live and he is actually faster… Antoine joined just before Christmas, he can deliver the same goods. The good thing about Antoine is he is a multi instrumentalist; he is into progressive music… More camaraderie… Antoine is three hours of road from me and sometimes he makes the trip just to say hi…I wish I had met that guy 20 years ago. Same with Matt and Forest. I had two bands before Augury, and for those two bands I always had to wait for other people. My other band before this, my vocalist was in the army for six to eight months a year… And the previous band did not want to tour our own area.”

With the band seemingly having a stronger creative unanimity today, I wondered if the longer-than-usual writing period for Fragmentary Evidence was a necessity or a delay. Could the album have been completed in less time?

“The songs would have been different, simpler and have less arrangement.  It would be more like the first fresh ideas that you have… On the other hand, some other elements were too worked up. My own tastes are to do something natural and say “Fuck it” if there are mistakes, the others are like, “No we will do it, it is your 28^th take.”

Having signed with historical label Nuclear Blast, it would seem Augury are getting the praise and attention that the band’s ability demands. I told Patrick that I remember the fallout of Concealed, how in many ways it was like a revolution or alternately a bittersweet feeling of “Of course, this is how it should be done.” To this day, criticising Concealed is forbidden, and quickly snuffed by the various message board elites. I failed to mention that this was perhaps my own perception in regards to a very private and scrupulous metal community, far removed from the everyday shopper:

“You are teaching me something because we absolutely do not see it as that big. I read something cool on the internet, but you know, same as usual. I am well past the age where this would me jump into the ceiling and not sleep at night. The words ‘huge and monumental’ do not come to mind.”

And yet now their growing reputation is receiving kinder and more attentive input. On the growing limelight: “It was due to happen. It is impossible to kick my own ass for 20 years trying to do my best and not end up on a label. If there was any justice, Ihsahn from Emperor would be a multimillionaire and Britney Spears would flip hamburgers at a truck stop…  It was meant to be. We deserve it. Period. The only thing that is left is only to earn a true living. You say ‘your album is huge’, but I did not make a penny back from it. When I was a teenager in the 80s, every fucking day people were telling me ‘Metal is dead, in a couple of years you will never about that crap anymore…You won’t want to have anything to do with it… If you want to get out of your garage, you have to play top 40 music that people can dance to, or else, you will stay alone in your basement.’ I play music that is 20 times heavier than that, and all those people are the ones who no longer play… I may succeed as being a real professional and not worrying about my bills anymore.”

Yet I wondered about the true nature of being on an exponentially larger record label. A band’s voice should be heard; “We did not have to raise our voice because there was no reason; they gave good promotion, good distribution, and whatever you might fear from a big label (has) not happened yet. They did not send a lawyer saying “Hey guys, you have to change your look, you have to talk about Satan. They still let me be, no problem. I am very happy with it.” The placement of Augury in all it’s members lives was one of the larger revelations I had. Since Forest had been involved with Quo Vadis, and because of the lengthy five years between albums, I had always imagined them a band that emulated a “meeting of minds” style, a casual project that would produce when it wanted to… And yet each member is dedicated to it, genuinely excited about it’s possibilities. Regardless, Patrick and I discussed his teaching profession. I would be going apeshit if my chemistry professor moonlit as a death metal vocalist, so I could not avoid asking how his students felt, “Most of them are into quieter music, especially those who come from a real war ridden country.” (Montreal and it’s surrounding area has an incredibly diverse and cosmopolitan ethnic demographic ).  They cannot tolerate our movies, when you see the real thing it is different… I still have metal friends and metal fans in there. The fun part is when we have the report cards, we have a parent meeting; I sit at my little table with my books, I have a line up of parents that come to me “Hi ok, was my kid ok this semester?” In three instances this year I have these guys opening (their) coats and flashing their Augury shirts. I played a few stage shows in Montreal and the whole row was only my students. They are cool with it, their only beef is that I am not teaching next year due to massive touring. To earn a living, I will pledge to give guitar lessons on the road (laughs) I quit my job for almost a year but they want me back, it is not like ‘oh you play in a band, you are out, bang!’”

Augury’s latest disc hit stores in Europe last week, and a rigorous touring schedule is in place (including 2 Toronto dates in October). With the band musically and personally stronger, I asked what the future held and what a third album would sound like; “Of course, (Forest) already has four songs written. He already played it for us… Some of them have already started writing riffs. Matt has a song that he played for us a few weeks ago that sounds like my type of music, very extremely aggressive black metal… My own input, it is a bit more Celtic… (My input) will always be a bit more Viking (or) Celtic than the others. I have a more Celtic grindcore feel to my own input, and a few solos as well.” This momentum of energy would seem to establish Augury’s place in a musical canon as even more absolute. The uncompromising dedication to their personal motives and hopes for Augury doubtlessly influences their music’s quality more so than any factors previously discussed… It feels good to be outside again.