DISCOGRAPHY

Dissections of the organism....Click the cover images to listen.

1. Welt- March 20, 2001

aTmOspHere: jittery, fuzzy, antisocial, multi-genre, muddy, impish

frailheart's fAvoRiTes: Cracker, Solow, Minus

When listening to this debut, your mind can't help but conjure creatures similar to the ass-ugly gopher from Hell on its illustrated cover...furry, writhing, malformed, bubbling up from the ick of swamps and scuttling through barren trees. The electronics on this record are all at once spastic, mechanical, and organic. As if progressions have taken on a life of their own and are ceaselessly trying to break free.

All influences are fair game here. You will find traces of the medieval, some new wave compositions...and even hip-hop verses. The latter makes themselves right at home on "Cracker", a hyperactive 3-minute ramble about Ogre's disappointment with what the industrial scene had become by the early 2000s. Other notable tracks include the deceptively upbeat "Solow", which is pure synth pop seemingly inspired by both Gary Numan and Fad Gadget, and "Minus", a clever work on the countless hypocrisies to be found in institutionalized Christianity. "Minus addition is nothing", a central line from the aforementioned song, cuts through to the point that a religion (specifically Christianity with its cross or plus-mark imagery) bastardized to serve one's own hateful agenda is devoid of value.
The theme brings to mind the evergreen horrors perpetuated by the Trump administration's nationalistic tyranny and so on...and it's brilliant.

While Welt is not my personal favorite album of ohGr's, it's generally seen as their best. There's plenty of classics to enjoy and contemplate that feel just as fresh as they did some twenty plus years ago.
An often-overlooked industrial classic.

2. SunnyPsyOp- July 1, 2003

aTmOspHere: glitching, hazy, introspective, delicate, despairing,
ethereal, psychedelic

frailheart's fAvoRiTes: maJiK, JaKO, iOvNoW

ohGr's second endeavor offers its listeners a more heartfelt look into the spirit of its enigmatic frontman Ogre. Here he offers up new dialogues on burn out, depression, and addiction. On "maJiK" Ogre groans about the crushing mundanities of civil life while middle eastern inspired guitar riffs mingle with pounding drums, shrill synth lines, and croaking vocal samples. "We all believe the magic is in you/ Cause there's making the breakfast/ And taking out the garbage too...Ennui/Forever never win."
It is an oddball hard rock anthem for the mentally drained worker.

On the next track, "JaKO", we take a brief stroll through a torchy track about relationship discontentment. It has a slowish yet pulsing beat, where Ogre incorporates robotic vocal effects, a divisive element among fans. Some hate them, comparing it to the ones used on Cher's late 90s pop hit "Believe". Personally, I really love these vocoder-like stylings, reminding me more of the spacey hymns of Bruce Haack than kitschy club music. The most lyrically devastating track of the lot is "DoG", a druggy confessional that segways beautifully into the epic existential uncertainty of "iOvNoW". The trilogy that is "DoG", "iOvNoW" and the rave-ish instrumental "ShiTe" provide us with a complete story on substance abuse and Ogre's mind-war against apathy, as the instrumentals breathe and morph
to compliment his poetic writings.

SunnyPsyOp is without a doubt the most disputed over of ohGr's creations, with its slower moments and more experimental components, but I believed it served as a crucial stepping stone for all the other goodness that was yet to come from the band. It brings new life into themes familiar to Skinny Puppy's discography, and is well worth checking out.

3. Devils In My Details- November 4, 2008

aTmOspHere: theatrical, obsessive, unsettling, sleazy, satirical,
aching, restless

frailheart's fAvoRiTes: Feelin' Chicken, Psychoreal, Witness

For me, D.I.M.D is the smartest of all the ohGr records and probably my favorite. A truly artful collage of Western uneasiness. For this project, the group collaborated with Bill Moseley, who's most famous for starring in 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2' as Chop-Top, and for acting with Ogre as half of the Largo brothers in the cult classic horror musical 'Repo! The Genetic Opera'.¹ This album is composed of a series of narratives based around characters not too dissimilar from the antagonists of the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"... paranoid American working class men pissed with the state of the nation.

On "Feelin' Chicken", Moseley performs as a downtrodden blue-collar fella who's been hung out to dry by the cruel purgatory of hyper-individualistic America. "I want to belong, I want to be proud/ But your gay-bashing voices are so fucking loud/ My choices are shrinking like bacon in the pan...Bombers in Baghdad, I am a college grad/ But my life is a want-ad". To a similar effect on "Witness", Ogre takes the helm solo to deliver a ballad-of-sorts about the sorrow of living to work, and about the temptation to give into your worst vices. For many people, addiction feels like the only means of taking some control over their lives in a world devoid of freedom...and I feel that Ogre is trying to communicate this lived experience here. "Can I get a witness to the other side of accusers/ You should all just die/ I need to speak some things inside/ to crucify my mind...Make your money and die". The song is both heartbreaking and oddly comforting. One of the most impactful in the band's whole discography.

Devils In My Details delivers on all the cynical observations we've come to expect from ohGr, while also offering some new theatrics no doubt inspired by Ogre's then-recent ventures in acting. This comes by way of not just "Feelin' Chicken" but also through the pornographic circus lullaby "Eyecandy" and the clockwork surrealism of "Whitevan". To me this project doesn't get nearly enough attention, and I recommend it to any fans of socially conscious horror...or to any left-leaning goths. Especially those stuck in the southern United States like myself. Take comfort in the shared pains so skillfully articulated, and let this album's softer, humanistic moments spark a bit of hope amidst the dread....

4. unDeveloped- May 10, 2011

aTmOspHere: experimental, bright, calculated, crass, cosmic, enlightened

faintheart's fAvoRiTes: comedown, bellew, animist

For this record, Ogre and crew took a go at adding modern pop tunes with catchy choruses and swelling instrumentals into their already impressive web of compositions. Within these new works are tales of sex, death, and existential discovery. Most notable of the lineup is "comedown", which starts with a slow build that looms over the listener like a gigantic doomsday stormcloud. As the rhythm crawls menacingly forward, it shifts into an infectious alien dance track, with frightening synthetic highs and a chorus delivered with Ogre's signature gnarled snarkiness. "When you gonna come down here and blow my mind?". A song on reckless coitus that leaves one empty it seems...a reoccurring preoccupation for our main man. "Seize the hard reply/ Life that's flying by/ Open up inside/ Crash and die/".

Despite the overwhelming gloom presented here, unDeveloped is certainly not devoid of upbeat moments. "bellew" feels like a more mature companion to "comedown", about finding the meaning in pain. About coming to an understanding that despair and chaos are necessary parts of our reality that make life feel more precious. "Consequences reached a twist/ Everything disastrous is pure". With its gorgeous, twinkling instrumental and vulnerable refrain, it is a simply amazing tune.
One of my favorite songs ever.

This album is an overall great addition to ohGr's catalogue, offering more pop-y works for both new and longtime fans to enjoy. It's also a reminder that through all of life's crashing and burning comes the ability for things to change for the better. That the only way out of desolate times is through.
A sentiment that leads me back to this work time and time again.

5. Tricks- June 18, 2018

aTmOspHere: playful, bouncy, danceable, cryptic, dystopian, hypnotic, quirky

faintheart's fAvoRiTes: Freaky, Subject, Mind Made God

ohGr's most recent (and supposedly final?) album is a sample-heavy, dizzying amusement park ride full of venomous melodies and bouts of twisted beauty. It starts off strong with the carnival-esque "Freaky", which excitedly beckons its listeners to prepare themselves for more of the group's beloved dark wit. The tune towers into a soaring onslaught of ethereal synths as Ogre demonically drawls seamlessly into the mechanical bop of "Subject".

The standout track of the album is most definitely "Mind Made God", a work that spits on the faces of the Trump administration and its fanatic droves of right-wingers. "Your purity inflates the worst of views that complicate your mind/Erected statues of ill-fated tainted time...And watch the base expose the fascist space and time." Beneath the administration's thin mask of traditionalism lies sinister goals to scapegoat using our country's most vulnerable people, building up authoritative figures under a classic hivemind mentality of superiority. "The piece of mind that made God is dead so let's discard it". Much like with the song "Minus", ohGr is warning its audience of the dangers of authoritarianism specifically under the guise of Christian nationalism. Christ-like empathy has been discarded and replaced with the foremost preservation of assets and egos. With Trump now starting his second term in 2025 as I write this, this song proves more important now than ever. I'm forever grateful it was published... never heard anything quite like it.

While upon release Tricks generally left a bit to be desired from ohGr's fans, make no mistake, there are some truly great songs here and there. Overall, I'm glad ohGr could release one final album with their frustrations over our current political climate as the main inspiration. It's certainly cathartic and worth giving at least one good play-through.

References

1.'Bill Moseley.' Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Feb. 2025, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Moseley.

2.'OHGR.' Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Jan. 2025, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OhGr.

3.'Repo! The Genetic Opera.' Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Mar. 2025, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo!_The_Genetic_Opera.

DISCLAIMER: This site is a college project and is not in any way endorsed by OhGr, Kevin "Ogre" Ogilvie, Mark Walk or any other artists associated. All writing is done by me and factual details mentioned in the home page and etc. as well as outside elements have been credited as well as possible. If the owners of any material used (photos, etc.) would like their items removed, please direct message me, the site's author, at @heartbeatsfrail on Instagram on Instagram and it will be done asap. Thank you.