Band:	Oghre
Album:	Grimt
Style:	Sludge metal
Release date:	May 15, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Viens
02. Trauksme
03. Sarkans
04. Māli
05. Vaidava Celies!
06. Slāpes
07. Rītausmas Zirgs

Progressive sludge that doesn't try to sound like Mastodon is always a welcome rarity. Latvian prog sludge even more so.

You're probably more interested in the prog sludge part than the Latvian part, and who can blame you. I know next to nothing about Latvia's music, with my knowledge of their scene starting and ending with Skyforger and Tesa, which is already probably above average for someone with no connection to the country. I do know a little bit about their history and culture, but most of it because it is shared with their neighbors: the pagan Romuva faith, the Livonian religious order, eventually conquered by Russia, independence in WW1, forcefully annexed by the USSR, independent again after the Cold War. You can say pretty much the same thing about Lithuania and Estonia, except that Lithuania had a huge duchy and Estonia is closer culturally to Finland. Latvia is just... in between. I suppose this is something that has some relevance to their culture, but that's something you're more likely to hear in a Skyforger song than an Oghre one. Worth keeping in mind, though.

The one thing that ties their music to their country the closest is the fact that they sing in Latvian... or is it Livonian? My linguistic interest is surface level and Google isn't being helpful, but the important difference is that Latvian is a Baltic language (ie closer to Lithuanian) and Livonian is a Finnic language (ie closer to Estonian). I'm going to go with Latvian for this one. And though during the harsher moments for the vocals I can't say that the language of the vocals are that important, there are a lot of cleaner moments as well. And in those moments, and I know that the members of the band will probably strangle me for saying this, it sounds as if it has a very strong Russian accent, and I say this as someone whose knowledge of Russian stops at "Где мой борщ". Thankfully none of that really matters, other than the language barrier stopping me from enjoying any of the lyrics and potential concepts (apparently this one is themed on oxygen, with the previous one on hydrogen), and the language is melodious enough to properly work during both the clean and the harsh sections.

Ok, even though I admitted that you care more about the prog sludge part than the Latvian part, I spent two paragraphs talking about the latter, I'm sorry. Oghre is still primarily a sludge album, more leaning towards post-metal rather than some dirty crushing sludge. And it makes sense since post-metal is bordering on both genres so it's only natural that a meetup between the two would eventually lead there as well. It is crushing too, but it is either long-winded or increasingly intricate. The progressive part of their sound, as well as the very lush production might have to do with TesseracT's Acle Kahney producing the album, but both of these add a lot to how impressive the sound is. Some of the progressive parts do end up being more on the "chuggy riffs" area, but the band plays around a lot with different styles, in between harsher and mellower ones, showcasing a pretty great sense of dynamism. And the vocals especially are absolutely fantastic in both of those moods, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't massively prefer the charming cleans. Maybe the language barrier did indeed add to that charm, but it's also because Oskars Dreģis' voice is just that good.

Once the initial charm of the strange language of the vocals is gone, Grimt is still interesting enough as a sludge/post/prog album even if it doesn't push any boundaries. I might have lead you on through two paragraphs about Latvia with the promise of prog sludge only to basically end up in post-metal, but Oghre still feels pretty distinct from being just a post-metal band.