Augury continues the particular dominance French Canada has on the technical death metal scene. We caught up with the band’s guitarists, Patrick Loisel and Mathieu Marcotte, during their Fall US tour in support of their latest album, Fragmentary Evidence.

Maelstrom: What I thought was cool on Concealed (Augury’s first album) was the female operatic singing. Will you continue to use these elements in the future?

Patrick: No. Well, maybe occasionally, but... first of all, female opera singing wouldn’t fit with most of our compositions, and secondly, we feel best as a four-piece.

Maelstrom: Have you ever had a show with live female singing?

Patrick: Sure! We have friends who are excellent singers, and it’s a common occurrence that they play with us during shows.

Maelstrom: I often notice how albums of bands that get signed to Nuclear Blast undergo something of a sound change — the sound is bigger, more showy, less subtle... there’s a certain homogeneity to it all. When you recorded Fragmentary Evidence, did Nuclear Blast demand that you do any specific thing to conform to their standards?

Patrick Loisel: The album was recorded before Nuclear Blast signed us.

Mathieu Marcotte: We did have to go back and change a few things with the mix and mastering — technical stuff dealing with frequencies and compression. But, as far as the instrumentation went...

Maelstrom: As artists, how did you feel about these demands?

Mathieu Marcotte: The end result was better because of them.

Maelstrom: Mathieu, talk to us a bit about your side project, Humaoid.

Mathieu Marcotte: It’s an instrumental project that’s principally acoustic, but that also has some tones from the metal world. I started the project to have fun. There are some guests on the album, like Augury’s bassist and the bassist from Unexpect.

Maelstrom: Tell us about the kind of gear Augury likes to use.

Patrick Loisel: We’re all adepts of instruments made in Quebec. For example, Forest (bassist) uses basses made by Michel Fournelle. In the studio, we used Mesa Boogie amps, but soon we’re going to switch to Engl.

Mathieu Marcotte: We like the gain Engls have, and also that their cabs have Celestion v30s in them, and that they’re made with thick wood.

Maelstrom: But aren’t Celestion v30s in a whole lot of manufacturers’ cabinets?

Patrick Loisel: Wood choice and its density are also very important factors.

Maelstrom: What order were the instruments recorded in on Fragmentary Evidence?

Mathieu Marcotte: We started with the drums — when you make a metal recod, it’s imperative to always start there. At the time, our old drummer, Etienne Gallo, was still the man. Drums took four days to record. The rhythm guitars took us seven or eight days. We recorded the guitars with a splitter, which allowed us to reamp the direct track through a Peavey 5150.

We recorded the electric guitars with Yannick St-Amand, who’s recognized at being the best guy in Quebec in terms of a wall of guitar sound. The acoustic guitars were recored in Montreal with Hugues Deslauriers. This made more logistical sense for us as Fragmentary was created over a year’s time.

Maelstrom: How many tracks were recorded?

Mathieu Marcotte: It depends on the song, but for the rhythms, there are always two tracks: One is Patrick on one side, and the other is me on the opposite side. None of the tracks were doubled, but the panning changes often.

Maelstrom: What can yuo say about the progress you’ve made from your first to your second album?

Patrick Loisel: We didn’t have an improvement agenda in order to impress anyone else. One thing, for example, that we wanted to improve on from Concealed was how the guitar tapping harmony levels are not right. Rather, we like impressing ourselves, like how we applied echo on the acoustic guitar to make unusual melodic results.

Maelstrom: What are your influences?

Mathieu Marcotte: Emperor, Cynic, Nile, Opeth, Malmsteen, King Crimson, Genesis.

Patrick Loisel: I like experimental stuff in the classical and flamenco world, and old obscure metal bands like Nasty Savage and Mercyful Fate — groupes with mysterious ambience.