Ogre has put out two albums that are in the vein of Black Sabbath and early 70’s rock ala Sir Lord Baltimore, early Pentagram, and Deep Purple, but probably easily pigeon holed into doom metal. The band has previously worn their influences on their sleeves; however, it’s never really hurt them because they’ve had epic tracks and astonishing song writing. On the newest album, Plague of the Planets, the band has finally made and album with their own sound.
The album is one 37 minute epic track, which is a concept album. The story and the cover really go hand in hand, and the story is interesting. The fucking riffs in this album are just so catchy and brilliantly put together. The band progresses from sweet melodic acoustic passages to slow melancholic doom riffs to a nice upbeat 70’s rock riff and then back around. They do this in just an original way, that it feels like they were evolving as the genre was progressing. The guitarist always weaves in a solo almost exactly when it’s needed, and it’s just completely heart felt; when the solo comes in through the riffs, the bassist continues the riffs, and the solo just warps the riff into a brilliant passage that mimics the story of the album. The vocals on this album are just flat out superb. The variety, the homage to early rock singers, the falsettos, and his own touch of insanity makes every single vocal line perfect. He uses both vocal melodies and ‘spoken’ vocals interchangeably, and it sounds absolutely fantastic. I can’t get enough of his style and sound, it’s unique, but at the same time you can feel his influences all meshed together in one. It’s also worth mentioning the circular use of some of the riffs in this album to keep the theme of the album together.
When putting both of the brilliant riffing and vocals together, this album shines through on what Ogre can accomplish. They are so much more than another Sabbath worship band or a retro band. They have a tone of their own and use it to perfection. They did however use a few riffs they’ve used in the past, but they put them in a better context than their previous versions. This is by far the best Ogre album, and I cannot wait to see them continue and make an album better than this one!
http://www.myspace.com/ogre
No comments:
Post a Comment