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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Forgotten Gems-Ogre-Dawn of the proto-man

ogre

One of the best stoner rock bands ever was Maine's Ogre. I say was because unfortunately they broke up a few years ago. In the ten years they were around they knocked out three full length albums, a demo and were on a split album. This their debut remains my favorite. It's not as polished as the other two perhaps, but that's part of the charm. This trio obviously grew up on early and mid-70's heavy rock including Sabbath, Pentagram, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Uriah Heep, Budgie and others. The approach is blues based heavy rock with constantly moving grooves and plenty thick sludge covered riffs. More than any of that is that these guys flay out rocked. Whether it was on the slow-winding "Colossus", the thick, hard driving "Skeletonized" or the twisted grooves of "Suicide Ride". No matter what they kept moving shattering your ear drums the whole way. They were not just a mere retro/copy/imitation band either. They had their influences, but they put their spin on it and that's what made them special. The album isn't even ten years old and I still consider it a classic of it's time and I think I'll feel the same way 10-15 years from now as well. Even if you missed them you should still go back and check out the mighty Ogre.

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