Australia has never really been known for its female fronted metal/rock. In fact, I can’t really recall any female fronted metal/rock bands that have hailed from there other than Chalice. I was definitely interested in hearing Augmented to see what the country-continent could bring to the genre. Though, after researching the band, I found that the reception was generally polarized. It seemed that there were those who really enjoyed the album, and others who thought it was dreadfully boring. I was a bit skeptical to give the album a chance, but I did.

The opening track, "Liaising Pandora", pretty much shows you what to expect when you hear the album. There are some really sweet (maybe a bit overly sweet) slow moments, and some nice and catchy more up-beat rockier moments. There are also the vocals of Shiralee Morgan, who has a very pleasant voice. I feel she overdoes her vibrato on occasions, though it’s not that off putting. I personally enjoyed her voice the best when she belted her notes—though there aren’t a lot of belted notes throughout the album unfortunately. The music is very well played too, but there wasn’t much I got excited about—there wasn’t any "umph!", for lack of a better word. I would have enjoyed a bit of unexpectedness. Also, I wanted to mention the flute playing, which is done very well and gives a nice touch to the songs.

The songs on this album are very long too—almost an hour for 7 tracks. A couple of tracks suffer from "long -track-for-the-sake-of-a-long-track" syndrome (as I like to call it), especially the 15 minute "A Semblance of Sanity". There are definitely highlights though, with "Liaising Pandora", "Neuron", "Winter in the Desert Sky", and "Portrait" being very well constructed songs with pleasing melodies. Though, the lyrics are not my cup of tea at all. I honestly don’t have a clue what is being sung about a lot of the time. For example, here are a couple of lines from "Winter in the Desert Sky": "Nexus to hollow lies/Jaded is the ocean view/Redefine your anodyne/The company profits today." What? I’m all for enigmatic lyrics when done well, but I don’t think they were done well here.

After listening to the album a few times, I could where both sides of other reviewers were coming from—there are some really nice moments, though there are some very dull ones too. I would recommend taking a listening to "Liaising Pandora" if you want to check out the band—if you enjoy that song, you may enjoy most of the album. Though, if it doesn’t quite do it for you, neither will the album.

6.5 / 10