Ohgr - Devils in My Details

The title of the first song of the album is already misleading. ‘Shhh’ is not a quiet lullaby at all - the high-speed shuffle drums are like a bulldozer, complemented by hysterical strings, sudden breaks and Ogre’s heavily distorted voice. Some kind of freaky cyber rockabilly. And if you think the rest of the album would offer more speed driven, heavy stuff you are wrong again! With ‘Eyecandy’ the tempo and mood falls down into a dark pit, and when the edgy bass line comes in it’s like staggering out of this pit. Ogre’s voice is less distorted now for most of the track, but then his voice doesn’t need distortion to sound demoniac. The third song is aptly titled ‘Three’ and is again from one extreme to the next. Starting with sample speed metal guitars the song falls soon apart and becoming dark ambient tracks instead of becoming, as expected, a martial sonic attack. Sampled chicken lead into ‘Feelin’ Chicken’ - strange, the only time ohGr do something obvious it’s simply super-weird, hehe - and ‘Feelin Chicken’ becomes soon a weird waltz with vaudeville feel to it. ‘Devils In My Details’ continues as a musical rollercoaster, sometimes almost lulling you to sleep just to wake you up just in time.

‘Pepper’ starts with a noise but evolves into a rather dreamy, melodic song. The following and only 1:23 minute long ‘D.Angel’ thwarts this false sense of security with heavily treated guitars and drums, which are further processed in ‘Psychoreal’, which is a SKINNY PUPPY feeling to it, circa ‘The Process’ era. The maniacal and claustrophobic ‘Whitevan’ features a spoken-word performance of actor Bill Moseley (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”) and is followed by the single release ‘Timebomb’ - what an odd choice for a single! Not the most accessible song of the album, to say the least, although the melodic piano clanging (again with a certain vaudeville feel) has its charm. But it’s proceeded by a full minute of dark soundscapes and accompanied by enough distortion. Great song, though I’m not sure that this might make it high up the Billboard charts. After the droning noise of ‘Smogharp’ the album is finished with ‘Witness’, the most epic song of the album.