AUG

Classic hard rock is a genre that seems to remain timeless despite music’s continual evolution. As “natural selection” rarefies some sounds, New Jersey quartet AUG’s latest 9-track album ‘Be Careful What You Wish For…’ scraps with the apex at the summit of this process of existence. Its popularity doesn’t seem to be waning amongst the right crowds and it’s easy to understand why.

Noticeably, AUG don’t overplay – they stick to what they know and that is authentic hard rock. It’s all about the enterprise and commitment in the playing, singing and song writing, so expect powerful, distorted riffs with the typical guitar solo weaved into proceedings. Practically octave-less wailing akin to Ozzy Osbourne’s eccentric style scream-anading each pumped song, driving drums and hefty bass is the band’s raison d’etre and they never abandon the blueprint, even when covering Toto’s ‘Africa’.

‘Be Careful What You Wish For…’ isn’t revolutionary – in fact it’s a regular ‘How To…’ guidebook for aspiring rockers keen to pick up a guitar or drums and jam along to some fairly unpretentious compositions. It’s almost as if AUG either made a record that they’d like to hear or one that an audience of a certain era would like to hear…either way, I can’t help but feel that, in this day and age, this album wouldn’t have a mass market amongst the youth.

Something derivative of the likes of Iron Maiden and Guns n’ Roses, ‘Be Careful What You Wish For…’ is an ode to some of the founding father of heavy metal and the genre’s mercurial rise to commercial prominence. Its tireless, frenetic pace, classically recognisable rhythm and somewhat melodious structure provide 40 minutes of honest nostalgia, right down to the analogue synthesis that was employed so flagrantly in genre in songs from bygone years.