Ogre [ Death / Thrash | Japan | Interview on April 1, 2008]

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Ogre [Date of interview: April 1, 2008]
"OGRE" Crazy thrashers from Japan that have burnt the stage in Bangkok, Thailand with tons of awesome savage songs. If you guys were the witness on the Bangcock 2007 or Wild Scream 2007, you would know what the hell I 'm talking about!. This time, I bring you guys get in touch with GUILT [vocal, bass] to know the band "OGRE" more!

Hi GUILT, How its going,man? How's your life in Japan?
Guilt - OGRE: Boring, it's freaking boring everyday. I always long for real exitement. and I long for money too, *laugh*

Just only know, you guys set up the band in 1994 and released only two full-length albums. Can you give a brief history of Ogre?
Guilt - OGRE: Oh, it's gonna be a "long" brief *laugh* The first of all, I'm the only original member of OGRE. At the beginning, we played fast dance music, such as ANALOGUE MINISTRY. Then, I played with a band named "FORCE" and I was totally brown away by their dope sound. Do you know "MULTIPLEX" and "HELLCHILD"? The members of the FORCE came from these bands. OGRE wouldn't be the same without them. BTW,"FORCE" doesn't play now since the drummer, Natume-san quitted. I really recommend to listen their CD if you guys have a chance. After that, I got rid of all the suckers in ORGE, add some blast beat into our music. Our phrases are Laceration-styled slash metal and death metal. Our style of the sound turned into straight-up "hardcore" and that became the essence of OGRE. Then, we had gigs not only METAL but also with many different bands with many different styles. We wanted to "power-up", so we decided to have twin guitars. We played with many foreign bands like DRI from USA, F-Minus from USA, ABUSE from Canada, Zuckuss from Canada, 8mm OVERDOSE from USA,etc. 3 years ago, we went to Holland, and we went to Thailand last year. Somethin' like that.

What does the mean of Ogre,man? That's from the word "Gore"?
Guilt - OGRE: WAHAHAHA !!, We are nothing to do with GORE! OGRE is a mythological, Cannibal monster. We gotta eat each other on the stage, both members and audiences. Although lately OGRE from the U.S.----this is a doom rock---came to Japan and it's awfully confusing, so we may change it into OGRE-JAPAN.

About your band logo, who's created that,man? Meaning?, that's fuckin weirded, man!
Guilt - OGRE: Actually, I've divorced twice *laugh* and my ex-brother-in-law wrote the letter part of the logo for me. Have you guys ever seen "Shodo", the Japanese calligraphy? He was a Buddhist monk, and he did calligraphy. Anyways, he first crumpled up the paper, then wrote the letter with a big calligraphy brush onto the wrinkled paper. We've been using it for over a decade, so it may be the time for change.

The image of our band logo was made by one of our guitarists, who is now taking a break due to his medical issue. Actually, this is the second picture of our logo. The first one was much more simple---there was just a face of OGRE, like a Motherhead. When we had new members in OGRE, we decided to change it into more powerful, chaotic image. But nothing more nothing less, there are not much of deep meanings,*laugh* . I hope you guys didn't expect too much.

That's fuckin impressed on the time that I saw your show in Thailand, that's fuckin awesome, how's possible that you will back here to destroy Thailand again?
Guilt - OGRE: ขอบคุณครับ! Thailand is a great place. I am not good at a cold weather, so I love Thailand, haha. If Thailand needs OGRE, of course we'll be back anytime. Although I feel much more comfortable to come back here next time with a souvenir---our new album. Plus, we played at the "Bangcock" only a short while, so I wanna have a longer stage. On the other hand, we had a long gig at the "Wild Scream", but we got hella lot of troubles on the stage. We gotta so many reasons to "revenge" (laugh out loud) including more "fun time" outside stages. We really didn't have a time to go around to see Thailand.

But most importantly, we regretted that we couldn't play with all of the members. We are actually members of four. As I mentioned earlier, one of our guitarists had a serious heart condition that his artery got bursted just about a month before we came to Thailand. He survived, but it was too much for him to play guitar on stages so we couldn't bring him with us. I really hope we can show you guys the fully charged OGRE next time. We wanna play with Masochist again as well.

What do you think about the audiences in Thailand? Compare with the metalheads in Japan?
Guilt - OGRE: These guys were real "DANGER" in one word. They were bloody, the greatest real KILLERS!! We felt we'd be murdered if we did a shitty gig, haha. Japanese audiences used to be just like that. They are pretty lame nowadays. I know there are many regulations lately in Japan, but over all, I feel audiences are more passive to the "aggressive music". And therefore sometimes I don't feel good enough at a gig. Well, probably we need to do a better job.

From 2003, after you guys released "Lacerate the Betrayer" and after that, Ogre don't have any new releases [I mean official album not for the compilation] , why's that,man? and you guys have some plans to release the new one?
Guilt - OGRE: First of all, we didn't have a set of members. OGRE often changes its members because we play real hard physically, and they simply can't catch up with it. Well, some of them were actually fired (laugh). So every time the member changed we needed to start from the scratch---teaching our existing numbers and so on---and that's why we didn't have enough time to make a new music. Also we didn't meet up with a good label.

This time, we made a contract with "People's Record", a good, strong distributer in Asia. It is very first time for them to have a band like us. So I am very looking forward to seeing how they can promote us. In Thailand, I'd like to talk to "I Scream Music" who took care of our compilation CD. I hope we can release the 3rd album by the end of this year. Good thing is that the 1st and 2nd album were completely sold out, so we'd like to record our most hits and make the album, "TOTAL LACERATION" . Unfortunately, we didn't have a luck with a good distributer for 1st and 2nd albums, and they are released only within Japan on the top of it. I really hope we can reach out more people outside Japan with this album.

How's about the Japan metal scene? Are you interesting to bands, which are recommended during this time ?
Guilt - OGRE: As I said earlier, the Japanese audiences are a lot more obedient than before. They behave too well that don't make me feel good enough (laugh). Of course there are few exceptions. Well, at least they always really welcome bands from outside Japan, haha. That's why all the bands visit Japan get a good impression on Japanese metal scene.

There are many interesting bands that I wanna recommend---SxOxB, GAUZE, Kings-Evil, Terror Squad, Die You Bastard!, Swarrrm,Jurassic Jade,Suns Owl,APOLOGIST,Butcher ABC,Guillotine Terror,From Hell,Plastic-Nine,FC.FIVE,Manuplated Slaves,Necronomicon,NO MORE PAIN,Zombie Lolita,Blood Stain Child,ZOMBIE RITUAL…something like these.

Okay Guilt, what's your plan in the future with Ogre?
Guilt - OGRE: Well, In our grand idea, we wanna reduce a number of gigs and wanna spend more time for making new music. Also, we wanna release those two albums; "TOTAL,LACERATION" and the 3rd full album. Then, we wanna start up many gigs in and out of Japan again.

Wanna say something to Metalheads who read this interview, go ahead,Bro'!
Guilt - OGRE: Be a "Metalhead" until..... no, even after you die! That's the best way to "rest in peace HELL,YEAH!!!"