Augury

Local extreme progressive act Augury had the honour and challenge of opening day two of Heavy MTL, and they filled that position admirably. As with other Quebecois bands playing this weekend, Augury comfortably addressed their audience in French, only breaking into English now and then. Though soprano Arianne Fleury hasn't appeared on recent tours, she was present here, providing a stunning counterpoint to the distortion and growls. Augury's sound is, in fact, filled with contrasts, many of them executed creatively on the guitar with string bending and knob tweaking galore (often visible on the fest's giant screens). Performing tracks like "Fragmentary Evidence" and "Simian Cattle" with no audible reduction in complexity, Augury demonstrated their creativity in guitar-based sound manipulation and allowed us to so see up close how it is they do what they do.