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)

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)

On their probable swan-song, the now-defunct Maine traditional doom trio Ogre mounted what was likely their greatest achievement yet. After being together for a decade, the band released Plague of the Planet in 2008 on the suddenly-MIA Leaf Hound Records out of Japan. As ever, the band demonstrated the sound reasoning behind their becoming a New England institution, why so many thought them to be the best the region had to offer as regards trad doom. With all the ?70s vibes and nods toward Pentagram, Dio-era Sabbath and Mot?rhead, it?s a hard argument to counter. I won?t even try. Instead, I?ll just be happy that Pittsburgh imprint Shadow Kingdom Records saw fit to reissue the album and get it out to the masses (myself included) earlier this year.

Plague of the Planet tells the story of humanity?s demise and ultimate redemption at the hands of the machines we?ve made. It?s a familiar sci-fi theme, but Ogre handle it with grace and a flair for epic storytelling that puts oil wars in an entirely new context. Like Road Warrior meets Metropolis meets The Terminator with some role-playing nerdiness thrown in for good measure. The album?s art, like a comic book cover, goes a long way toward giving an idea of the band?s intent.

Like a lot of concept albums, the narrative lyrical approach means the individual songs are often without a chorus or traditional structures. Ogre skirt that by making the 11 individual parts of Plague of the Planet — seven of which feature vocals from bassist Ed Cunningham — one 37-minute track, so while parts like that dubbed ?Drive,? the third of the 11, has a catchy chorus, it?s basically absorbed by the largess of the material surrounding. This of course has its ups and downs, but what it forces the listener to do is take on the album as a whole, expose him or herself to the entire story and decide how they feel about Plague of the Planet on that level. There are no singles here.

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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.

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