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OhGr
Devils in My Details

SPV

Posted: Friday, October 31, 2008
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Nivek Ogre has become something of a living legend in the music world, recognized primarily as the dynamic vocalist for seminal industrial act Skinny Puppy. His theatrical and sometimes gruesome stage performances, abstract vocals, and transient wordplay have been a clear influence on an entire generation of musicians and performers. Among his many projects, OhGr – often mislabeled as his solo project, though it is well known to be a collaborative effort with producer Mark Walk – has perhaps amassed the highest accolades for its effective mix of experimental electronics, Ogre's voice, and upbeat pop melodies, making for a fractured style that successfully freed the band from undue comparisons to Skinny Puppy. With the release of the third album, Devils in My Details, it's almost gratifying to see that the reformation of that band with Walk joining the ranks hasn't put OhGr to rest, although upon listening to the album, some might be inclined to believe the opposite, at least in terms of retaining a musical identity separate from their other band.

An intriguing note about Devils in My Details is that it was constructed from a single marathon Pro Tools session, with the individual tracks being culled from the best elements of that session; not unlike the Download and Psychic TV tracks constructed from the Puppy Gristle jam. Right from the get-go with "Shhh," with its thunderous array of drumbeats and Ogre's rapid fire distorted vocal delivery, the song sounds like the beat of Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" underlying Sister Machine Gun’s "Living Without You," before ending with a bed of symphonic pads and glitch-laden voices. "Eyecandy" picks up with a subtly off-beat rhythm that puts this listener in the mind of the mathematically complex compositions of King Crimson, as wavering synths and Ogre's menacing lyrical constructions make for a frighteningly dissonant track. As we transition into the three-count industrial march of "Three," which contains a distorted sample that might be taken from Front 242's "Religion," it's not long before the listener realizes that OhGr has taken a dramatic turn with this album away from pop accessibility in favor of a more avant-garde display of musical trickery. The whimsically deceptive triteness of "Feelin' Chicken" is the first real trace of the older OhGr formula, although set to a five-count that keeps the track in line with the rest of the album's strangeness, while "Timebomb" is almost certain to be sampled by hip-hop producers with its bouncy beat and piano-driven melody sure to addict even non-OhGr fans. The same could be said of "Pepper" and "Whitevan," both of which almost sound like outtakes from David Bowie's 1. Outside, although the ambient progressions that begin midway through the latter track bear some semblance to "Shhh." This combined with the seamless transitions between the tracks serve as indications that Devils in My Details is in fact a concept album, though the nature of that concept is not made lyrically explicit. "Psychoreal" merges Walk's mangled guitar stabs with Ogre's seemingly haphazard cut-and-paste vocal manipulations, while "Witness" closes the album out on a tepid and somewhat depressive and disappointing note; while it's a brilliantly constructed track, certain sections of the song are far too similar to "Haze" from the last Skinny Puppy album.

Of course, given that Walk and Ogre are members of Skinny Puppy, it's only natural that elements of their recent work in that band could conceivably bleed through into OhGr, although this writer firmly believes that this is only readily apparent in the final track. Combine this idea with the certainty that many OhGr fans will very likely be frustrated by the toned down pop inflections that marked a significant amount of the band's initial appeal, and it seems clear that despite its adventurousness, Devils in My Details may not be remembered fondly as a high point in OhGr's discography. However, Nivek Ogre's appearance in the upcoming film Repo! The Genetic Opera plus the addition of costar and horror film icon Bill Moseley reciting several spoken word passages throughout the album will at the very least give the album a great deal of publicity, and this writer is of the mind that had OhGr continued down the pop-friendly route of their previous two albums, Devils in My Details would suffer from a stagnation in sound and style that would belie the band members' reputations. As such, the third OhGr album could indeed be their best from a compositional standpoint, if not in satisfying the fans' expectations – but then again, a true artist is supposed to challenge expectations. Nonetheless, listeners should be forewarned to adjust their stereo levels... this album is heavy on substance, but even more so on bass!