I kept a steady pace rolling up the Maine Turnpike (aka I-95 but they charge you for it; I’d bitch, but NJ does the same thing), not looking to get pulled over both because it would involve talking to cops and because my car’s not registered, but with the sunset on my left, the rising supermoon on my right and big, old growth pines on both sides of the road, it would’ve been hard to complain had anyone been around to listen. Last time I was in Portland, it was also for a show at Geno’s Rock Club — Ogre‘s CD release, back in March (review here) — and though I had a hard time picking out familiar landmarks without a foot of snow on the ground, I eventually found my way to the same spot for the third of We’re all Gonna Die‘s three Summer 2014 reunion shows, with locals Murcielago rounding out the bill and support from MA’s Tigerman Woah and Maple Forum alum Blackwolfgoat.

The latter opened, going on around 9:30, with Darryl Shepard (Milligram, The Scimitar, etc.) starting out his Blackwolfgoat set with some new material from the forthcoming Small Stone release, Drone Maintenance. It’s his third LP under the Blackwolfgoat moniker — The Obelisk’s in-house label released the first CD pressing of the second one, Dronolith — and the most accomplished, Shepard beginning to veer toward a songwriting impulse to match the project’s progressive drone soundscaping. I was pleased to hear Dronolith opener “Building Buildings” in the mix, distinct for its layers of rhythm and melody, and it made an interesting lead-in for “Cyclopean Utopia,” the only Blackwolfgoat song to-date with vocals, for which Shepard got on mic and let loose a succession of ambient screams.

His time cut somewhat short when the strap on his guitar broke, but I guess part of the fun of having an outfit like Blackwolfgoat is that when something like that happens, you can roll with it. Still screaming over his loops and feedback, Shepard strummed the guitar a few times with his shoe before kneeling down to twiddle knobs on his pedal board. That wash of feedback continued even as he began to pack up his gear, but eventually the amp got shut off. “Cyclopean Utopia” was about half-done, but that strap was all-the-way done, and that seemed to win out. It was about as disparate a lead-in for Tigerman Woah as one could ask, the Lynn, Massachusetts, four-piece offering standup bass, banjo ukulele and rockabilly-ish revelry of a much more riotous and beery sort.

I live on the South Shore of Massachusetts, under Boston. On the other side of the city is the North Shore. I haven’t been up there much in the year that I’ve lived in the state, so I can’t necessarily speak to the geography of the place, but what I’ve seen has been way more Upper-Middle-Class-mall and way less a setting befitting the Appalachian mountain punk that Tigerman Woah proffered, but I’ll give it to those dudes for both selling it well and every now and again going on a tear of gang vocals and guitar solos that were likewise duly infectious. Plus who knows what lurks in those old foothills. They weren’t really my thing — and they were definitely the odd band out on the bill — but Tigerman Woah kept me glued to my spot on the floor at Geno’s with their twanging party vibe, gravely vocals and enviable beards.

After two prior shows, in Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire, it wasn’t such a surprise to find We’re all Gonna Die pushing through their set with workmanlike fluidity, but what stuck out to me most from watching them for the first time in I don’t know how many years was how dead-on they came across. Sometimes when a group plays for the first time in a while — I think in the Boston trio’s case, it’s been five years — they’re both rusty and overexcited. Material gets rushed. For guitarist/vocalist Jim Healey, bassist Jesse Sherman and drummer Scott Healey, it was more like seeing a band who’d been doing shows all year. They were plainly glad to be there, but they played like pros. The slow parts stayed slow, the fast parts were crisp in their pummel, and Healey‘s voice — a powerful instrument, forcefully wielded — was on point throughout and one could only stand in awe as solo after solo was thoroughly nailed. Something in me doubts this will be their last show.

Rounding out the night, Murcielago would keep that theme going, as the highlight of their set was a sudden turn that had guitarists Matt Robbins and Ian Ross (see also: Roadsaw) duking it out “Dueling Banjos”-style as they went back and forth, solo for solo. It was my first time seeing the band and they’ve only released a couple recorded tracks as downloads, so the bulk of their material was new to me, but came across steady in riff-heavy form, bassist/vocalist Neil Collins handling most of the singing with Robbins backing while drummer Brian Chaloux held it down smooth behind. Even during the aforementioned solo tradeoffs — which got a laugh as well at one point when Robbins flipped Ross off following a particularly impressive showing — Collins and Chaloux kept a central groove going as a bed, and Murcielago not only returned to that song’s chorus, but finished their set with another cut after.

That was about one in the morning, and I had two and a half hours of road time ahead, so I made my way out of Geno’s on the quick and back down the still unfamiliar Congress St. to my car, the Maine Turnpike lit blue by the near-full moon and save for a few swerving cars, empty with the well-worn evening.

A couple more pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

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Well, this one pretty much sells itself. Leave a comment on this post to enter to win a copy of Portland, Maine, trio Ogre‘s new CD, The Last Neanderthal, from Minotauro Records. I’ve got one copy of the album to give away (plus some nifty buttons), and as long as you enter with your email address in the appropriate box in the comment form, you’re eligible to make it yours.

Two things to note: First, I don’t keep email addresses and I wouldn’t know what to do with them if I did, so if privacy is your concern, I have neither the time nor the inclination to violate it perhaps other than with a note to let you know you’ve won the CD. Second, the album (review here) smokes and is well worth your time. Presented with weathered-looking art from drummer Will Broadbent in a sturdy gatefold-style digipak, it’s a doomer’s delight of underground riff worship and heavy groove, up to and including the cover “Soulless Woman,” originally performed by ’70s heavy rockers Ogre. Yup, Ogre covers Ogre. The concept alone should be enough to blow your mind.

If not, be sure to check out the most excellent Lego video for The Last Neanderthal highlight “Nine Princes in Amber,” posted for a refresher of the album’s righteousness and will to not take itself too seriously. Ogre — Broadbent, guitarist Ross Markonish and bassist/vocalist Ed Cunningham — have also just been added to the bill of The Eye of the Stoned Goat 4, which is set to take place May 3 and 4 at Ralph’s Rock Diner in Worcester, Massachusetts. They’ll be in good company alongside the reunited Sixty Watt Shaman, Kings Destroy, Beelzefuzz and many others.

CD winner is chosen at random. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for your continued support of this site.

Leave a comment on this post to win! Don’t forget to include your email address in the contact form!

Ogre, “Nine Princes in Amber” Lego video

I’d never been to Portland, Maine, but a CD release show for Ogre‘s first record in six years, The Last Neanderthal (review here) with Eldemur Krimm on the bill was a fitting occasion for a trip I’ve been wanting to make anyway, so tack two hours of Friday evening Boston traffic onto the already-two-hour trek, and I was off. The stretch of Portland I saw on arrival struck me like a lot of post-industrial towns, and really not so far from what I caught of Portland, Oregon, last month — lots of art, lots of Southeast Asian cuisine, more ice on the sidewalk. The show was held at Geno’s Rock Club. Local proggy types Sunrunner opened.

With four vocalists between the two guitarists, bassist and a ukulele player who remained seated for the duration — I guess it’s hard to find a strap — Sunrunner were rife with melodic intricacy. Singers traded parts, executed harmonized arrangements mostly with success and earned a warm reception from the crowd, who must have been waiting outside in the cold for the show to start and continued to pile in throughout the five-piece’s set. They were there plugging their second full-length, Time in Stone, and weren’t my thing, really, but decided to thrash out a bit at the end, which metered some of the indulgent moments. Basically at that point I was waiting for Eldemur Krimm to start.

Exactly when the last time I saw the reactivated Portlanders, I couldn’t tell you, but it was around the time they put out Dirigo, their 2003 debut, so somewhere in the neighborhood of a decade-plus. They were a trio then, now the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Fred Dodge, guitarist Neil Collins (also of Murcielago), bassist Jason Marshall and drummer Stefen Samuels hit the Geno’s stage in high spirits and offered me a reminder of what had made me enjoy Dirigo in the first place. Well at home in those songs, on that stage and kicking ass, Eldemur Krimm struck a balance between mid-’00s stoner and classic heavy rock quirk. They were fluid and relaxed in their groove, void of pretense, but the material was motor-ready all the same, and the audience went right along with them.

By then there was a more than solid crowd at Geno’s. Dirigo‘s memorable opener “Elephant Gun” was placed after “Black Fog,” which followed it on the album, and “She’s Maid of Wood, Pt. 2” from the self-released 2008 sophomore CD, Trainwreck on a Ship, led off. The people knew them, and with what looked an awful lot like a hat made of or at very least covered in electrical tape, Dodge made for a considerable presence up front during the songs. Marshall and Collins provided backing vocals to add to what already felt like a party, and both “Astronaut” and “Chopper Reject” were enough to make me pull out my copy of Dirigo again and give it another spin. Some technical troubles early on, but it was hard to imagine a better way to set up Ogre‘s set.

They did play exceptionally well next to each other — obviously this wasn’t the first time the two Portland locals have shared a bill — but Ogre distinguished themselves in their doomier feel, and where Eldemur Krimm had focused mainly on older material, Ogre celebrated The Last Neanderthal‘s arrival with a setlist taken half from it. “The Jaded Beast” and “Ogre” from the trio’s 2003 debut, Dawn of the Proto-Man, “Age of Ice,” which was on their original demo in 2000 and also showed up on 2012’s reunion compilation, Secondhand Demons, and a quick closing finale of what might’ve been a cover of “Naked Lady” by The Bags were older, and the rest of the set found bassist/vocalist Ed Cunningham, guitarist Ross Markonish and drummer Will Broadbent tearing through new tracks, beginning (rightfully) with “Nine Princes in Amber,” one of The Last Neanderthal‘s catchiest hooks.

Granted, in that category it has some competition, but it made a raucous start. As on the album, it gave way to the Sabbathian creepings of “Bad Trip,” and Ogre continued to play classic heavy rock off doom in much the same way as Eldemur Krimm had off punk and stoner vibes. Markonish quickly pulled attention with his lead work, which Cunningham and Broadbent met head-on with an array of killer grooves and fills. Something else Ogre had that worked with Eldemur Krimm was no delusion of grandeur. From the start of “Nine Princes in Amber,” it was clear that I was watching three friends who enjoy playing together have fun with a batch of new songs. That’s what it was. There were a smattering of birthdays that had been shouted out all night from the stage — Sunrunner rattled off five or six alone — and that only added to the already friendly mood. Ogre weren’t trying to “make it,” they were trying to have a good time. From what I could tell, that’s exactly what they had.

Maybe too much of one. “Warpath” and “Son of Sisyphus” had been thrills, but Geno’s brought up the house lights somewhere right around “Age of Ice” in what was a pretty clear signal to wrap it up. Ogre blasted their way through the closing cover anyway, and when they were done, the room was at full brightness. Coupled with the fact that it was past one by then and I had two hours’ road time waiting, I took it as a sign to head toward the exit. Made it home just a little before 3:30AM, which felt like good time.

Thanks to John Pegoraro for the company (his review is here) and Neil Collins for the accommodation.

More pics after the jump.

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Like the best of band breakups, Ogre‘s didn’t last. The Portland, Maine, trio called it quits in 2009, following the Shadow Kingdom reissue of their 2008 Leaf Hound Records single-track third album, Plague of the Planet (review here). They first got together for a gig in 2012 and last year set to writing what would become their fourth full-length, The Last Neanderthal, released through Minotauro Records. Recorded by Abel Adame at Acadia Recording in Portland, presented in a gatefold-style thick-stock digipak with an Obi strip and foldout poster in the liner notes of the weathered-looking cover art by drummer Will Broadbent, it’s an outing that comes with some measure of self-awareness hinted at through the title, the band perhaps referring to their own approach as the titular last neanderthal, positioning themselves as keeping their style simple and traditional in a world that’s gotten too complex for its own good. That’s speculative on my part, but if true, it sells short some of the cleverness in Ogre‘s songwriting and the obvious chemistry between Broadbent, bassist/vocalist Ed Cunningham and guitarist Ross Markonish (also synth), despite falling in line with the obvious tongue-in-cheek joy the three-piece take in covering “Soulless Woman” by a heavy ’70s rock group that also reportedly just happened to be named Ogre.

That song arrives fifth of the total eight tracks on the 47-minute album, signaling a turn from The Last Neanderthal‘s most doomed material — “Bad Trip” and “Son of Sisyphus” — to its more upbeat and deceptively nuanced finishing three: “Warpath,” “White Plume Mountain” and “The Hermit,” the latter of which is the longest cut at a fully-used 10:45. A 45-second intro, “Shadow Earth” leads the way curiously into immediate highlight “Nine Princes in Amber,” which serves as The Last Neanderthal‘s most singularly infectious hook. It’s a song Ogre played at their first reunion show, so one expects it’s been around a while, but either way makes an excellent introduction of its own to what’s on offer with the band’s return — though as landmark as that chorus is and with its position as the first real song in the tracklist, I’m not sure why they’d want to delay in getting to it by putting “Shadow Earth” there to start with. It’s Ogre‘s first album in six years, however, so I guess they can start it however they want. There’s little rust to be found throughout The Last Neanderthal for their several years away, Cunningham reaching high into his vocal register to inject trad-metal righteousness into “Nine Princes in Amber” before the slow count-in of “Bad Trip” signals a turn to more doomly atmospheres that Markonish‘s guitar soon enough underscores with lead riffing before a bass-driven break toward the midsection adds stoner creepiness to the whole affair, the vocals taking on a Mike Patton-style snide air of command.

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Portland, Maine, doom rockers Ogre have booked a release party for their forthcoming fourth full-length and first in six years, The Last Neanderthal. The show is set to take place March 14 at Geno’s in the trio’s hometown, and the recently reactivated Eldemur Krimm, as well as Sunrunner, share the bill. Minotauro Records has the release of the album, as previously reported, and the first new Ogre audio since 2008’s Plague of the Planet has surfaced in the form of a stop-motion video for the song “Nine Princes in Amber.”

A catchy, upbeat rocker of a track, set to be the second on the record, “Nine Princes in Amber” finds Lego visual accompaniment. We get to see all nine princes, we get to see sword and gunfights, and if I’m not mistaken, there are even a few ogres in there as well (at very least orcs). The clip is good fun and the song itself rips, so it seems only appropriate to share. Let’s hope this sets off a spate of Lego stop-motion doom clips, soon enough to be compiled onto a DVD and sold until either a lawsuit or broken legs at the hand of a Lego goon squad occurs. A goon squad easily disassembled into their component parts and rearranged into mutants with extra torsos where their legs should be, of course.

Video and show info follow. Right on:

Ogre, “Nine Princes in Amber” official video

Little Will C. has completed the first official video from “The Last Neanderthal!”

OGRE is now ready to unveil our new disc to the world, “The Last Neanderthal.” We’re happy to announce that we will be appearing with our old friends ELDEMUR KRIMM, who have recently reemerged, and prog rock superstars Sunrunner, who just came out with a whopper of a new disc, as well!

Ogre CD release event page

Ogre on Thee Facebooks

Minotauro Records

If you felt a doomly shake under your feet just now, no doubt that was Portland, Maine (there’s a twist!), trio Ogre, who’ve let word drop of their coming fourth album, The Last Neanderthal, with the force of any number of tectonic plates. The three-piece will issue The Last Neanderthal through Italian imprint Minotauro Records (hopefully) in late March, with cover art by drummer Will Broadbent, whose classic-comic style meshes perfectly with the band’s homage to the vaunted traditions of riff.

That album art and the tracklisting for The Last Neanderthal came down the PR wire, and of particular note is the cover song “Soulless Woman” by heavy ’70s rockers Ogre. That’s right. Ogre covering Ogre. It’s almost high-concept enough to make your skull cave in. Which no doubt was the whole idea.

Get informed, because knowledge is power and the squares are always near:

The album, which is titled “The Last Neanderthal”, is in the final stages of completion, and we’re hoping for an early March release (date is not set in stone yet, but I’ll keep you posted once we get more info). The master is in the label’s hands and the artwork is getting its finishing touches as I type this email. After that, it will be off for duplication.

The album has eight tracks on it and will be released by Minotauro Records in deluxe mini-LP format with obi strip and a foldout poster containing a reproduction of the album artwork (done by our drummer, Will Broadbent) and lyrics. I’ve attached a jpg of the front cover to this email.

Here’s the tracklisting of the album:

Shadow Earth
Nine Princes in Amber
Bad Trip
Son of Sisyphus
Soulless Woman (cover of a song by uber-obscure 70s rock band named…Ogre)
Warpath
White Plume Mountain
The Hermit

https://www.facebook.com/Rockogre
http://www.minotaurorecords.com/

Ogre, Plague of the Planet (2008)

If the crunch in the guitars of Sylvia‘s self-titled debut seem vaguely familiar, or if the overarching claustrophobic density of the eight-song outing sounds vaguely familiar, one might point to the involvement of Today is the Day mastermind Steve Austin, who is listed along with Shaun Curran and the band as having produced (though Curran recorded), and who also mixed and mastered the album at his Austin Enterprise studio. That influence shows up in some of the songs are a particular and peculiar atmospheric darkness — cuts like “Teddy Worm” and “Space Jaguar” make a few twists as well that are easily enough read as reminiscent — but the bulk of Sylvia‘s Sylvia is more stylistically nuanced than can really be tied to one band or another. The Portland, Maine, four-piece lock into black metal blasts and squibblies on “The Wolves of Brunch,” and offer Iron Monkey-style sludge on “Hot Summer Knights,” leaving plenty of room for on-a-dime shifts into post-High on Fire thrash, but really, it’s the combination of all these elements with just a touch of New England mosh on “Luv U 2 Death” and closer “Ukelalien” that gives the 31-minute long-player its personality. Well, that and the joke titles. Half of these songs showed up on Sylvia‘s 2012 Lizard Birdman demo, but the foursome of guitarist/vocalist Candy, bassist Reuben J. Little (both formerly of Portland mega-doomers Ocean), guitarist Sean Libby and drummer Andrew have a crisper sear to the sound of the full-length, and while that might actually take away from some of the lo-fi black metal edge, in turn, it also brings a more complex feel overall in letting the other stylistic elements shine through. The difference comes across clearly on opener “Lizard Birdman,” which at five minutes is the longest track on Sylvia (immediate points) and which sets an immediately blended tone for the rest of the songs to follow in one way or another.

A guest guitar spot from Gozu‘s Doug Sherman on the leadoff track makes it even more of a wrench in the gears of expectation, but “Lizard Birdman” also throws off the listener vocally. The first lines of the record are the only instance of clean vocals. Granted, they’re still shouts, but compared to the rasps that show up throughout the rest of the album, it might as well be Perry Como. One gets the sense in comparing “Lizard Birdman” to the rest of Sylvia, especially the 2:20 rush of “Teddy Worm,” which follows, that the band’s intention was to throw listeners off immediately. “Lizard Birdman” could just as easily have been the closer, but it’s where it is on purpose and toying with the audience seems to be why. A noble enough endeavor, and the opener is effective in its mission. Though the ensuing “Teddy Worm,” “Space Jaguar” and “Hot Summer Knights” essentially lean one way or another on influences from sludge, black metal, crust and thrash, committing to any over the other only for the briefest of moments if at all, the context for the brew is changed by the album’s first impression. Whether or not it makes the overall listening experience stronger than it otherwise might be, I don’t know, but it speaks to a meta-intent on the part of Sylvia, and as “Space Jaguar” switches between blackened screams and deathly growls en route to jagged and punkish starts and stops, it’s hardly the last time the four-piece will endeavor to make a show of their individuality and willful crossing of stylistic lines. The slower “Hot Summer Knights” takes peak-era Crowbar riffing and pairs it with an intense, semi-shuffle, splitting almost at the halfway mark to directly play one off the other. Following, “Luv U 2 Death” is no less ambitious, building to its darkened hardcore beatdown via black metal raging to start off the back end of the album perhaps in more typical fashion for the band’s general approach than “Lizard Birdman” started the first, though there’s still plenty of stylistic chicanery to come.

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Reunited Maine traditional doom trio Ogre do a pretty comprehensive job of telling their own story below (which is awesome), so I’ll keep it short. Needless to say, the thought of a new Ogre studio full-length — it’ll be their first since Shadow Kingdom released Plague of the Planet in 2009 (review here) right around the time of their initial breakup — is a pleasant one.

The band sent over the following announcement that they’ve signed to the also-reignited Minotauro Records and have much in the works. Behold:

OGRE is psyched to announce that we have signed a deal with the newly recharged Minotauro Records (Italy) to release our as-yet-untitled fourth full-length album. Minotauro, whose history goes back to the mid-1980s, is a well-regarded underground metal label best known for releasing such classic Paul Chain doom metal albums as “Detaching from Satan”, “Alkahest”, and “In the Darkness”. In addition to recently reissuing those Chain albums, Minotauro is now delving into releasing new music, with OGRE being one of the first bands signed.

The impetus for this new album really came from the reunion show that we did back in September 2012. We wrote one new song (“Nine Princes in Amber”) for that show and originally planned just to record that song and one more for a 7” record. However, once we started working on this new material, the ideas kept flowing and, before we knew it, we had enough songs for a full-length. We recorded three songs for the album back in April and are going back into the studio this weekend to record the remaining four tunes. We’re really excited about these songs, which are some of the heaviest we’ve come up with yet.

In addition to the new album, there are a couple of other “new” OGRE releases that have come out recently. Originally available only at our reunion show, the “Secondhand Demons” CD-r compilation has gone into a second pressing of 50 copies, available through our Facebook site. This compilation includes demo tracks, rare songs, live versions, and a bunch of covers (Vitus, Rush, Sabbath, Buffalo). We already are down to our last few copies, so anyone who would like one should act fast. We’ve also made the compilation available for digital download (along with the rest of our catalog) for those who prefer digital files. All proceeds from these sales will go straight to the cost of mixing and mastering the new album.

Last but not least, we have a very unique release to announce. Our 2008 album, “Plague of the Planet”, has just been released in a super limited edition DVD-audio quadraphonic mix! The album was completely remixed from the master tapes into vintage quadraphonic sound (70s style!) and also includes a bonus track of a quad mix of “Colossus” from our first album. This DVD will play in Dolby Surround on any DVD player, provided you have a surround set up (e.g. for movies), but if you have a player that decodes DVD-audio discs, then you will be able to hear the album in hi-resolution, lossless sound. As an added bonus, if your player is hooked up to a TV, the music is accompanied by a visual slideshow that features expanded album artwork by our drummer Will Broadbent, who did the amazing original art for the album.

The quad mix has been released by the Quadro-Surround label out of Germany, which specializes in limited pressing quad mixes of modern albums. Up until now, the label has only released jazz, folk, classical, and Latin music, but it was looking to expand into the rock world, and “Plague” is its first rock/metal release. There were only 100 copies pressed, and the band only has a few to sell at gigs, so if anyone is interested in getting a copy, please order directly from the Quadro-Surround website. The site is rather rudimentary, but Dietrich (who runs the label) is a straight-up guy. E-mail him, pay through PayPal, and he’ll get it right out to you. The mix is definitely pretty wild at times.

That’s about it for now. We’ll make sure to keep our Facebook page updated with info on the new album as it develops. Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/OGRE/279815828785274
http://ogrereal.bandcamp.com/album/secondhand-demons
http://www.quadro-surround.de/english/avaiable_productions.html

Ogre, Secondhand Demons (2012)