Hell, I never even got to hear Shadow Kingdom‘s reissue of Ogre‘s second album, Plague of the Planet, and here today I read the news that their Sept. 12 10th anniversary show in their hometown of Portland, Maine, is also their farewell. Quite a bummer. Ogre were one of New England‘s finest traditional doom outfits. Shame to see them go, but at least they’re doing it in style. Here’s the story from StonerRock.com:

After much band deliberation and discussion, Ogre has decided that our 10th anniversary show (September 12 at Geno?s in Portland) is going to be our final US gig and, essentially, the end of the band. This decision to dissolve the band was not an easy one to come by, but we feel it is the right call. At this point, there is too much going on in each of our lives to sustain Ogre at the level of quality that our fans expect and deserve.

And, before people decide to jump to conclusions (as is often the case when these things happen), we want to make clear that this decision was entirely mutual, all three of us agreeing that this was the right time to bring things to an appropriate conclusion. We have accomplished a lot of great things during our 10-year run, playing with too many amazing bands to mention, recording three well-received albums, and of course, touring Japan last year. We are proud of what the three of us have been able to do (especially considering how little we started with!), and we thought it would be better to end things on a high note, rather than fizzling out, as so many bands do.

With that in mind, we have decided to turn the 10th anniversary show into something of a ?last waltz,? giving the band and our fans one last chance to jam out and celebrate together. We have a lot of surprises and special treats planned for this show, and if we can pull everything together in time, it?s going to be a night to remember. Suffice to say for now, it?s going to be an entire night with Ogre, including three (yes, three!) full sets of fan favorites, cover songs, and Ogre rarities. We really hope that as many Ogre fans, past and present, near and far, will come out and celebrate with us on the 12th, so please make sure to keep checking our MySpace page for more details as the gig approaches.

Even though we have decided to make this our final US show, that doesn?t mean you?ve heard the last from Ogre. We will continue to work on the deluxe vinyl reissues of our three albums, which are slated for release by Iron Kodex Records (Germany) in the fall and are going to be absolutely killer. In addition, before we made the decision to dissolve the band, we were in the process of planning some European shows in 2010, and we fully hope to honor those obligations. Clearly, the Ogre is a tough beast to slay.

Finally, we just wanted to say thanks to everyone, world-wide, who has supported Ogre over the past ten years. We hope to see some of you at Geno?s on September 12!

Tags: Maine, Ogre

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.