King's X

Item: Ogre Tones
Author: Dan Singleton

Ogre Tones

(2005)

Reviewed by Dan Singleton

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label Inside Out MusicThe Phantom Tollbooth2005

alternative rock hard rock progressive rock

King's X hired a producer, Michael Wagener, to help them put together their first studio album of nearly all-new material since the disappointing Manic Moonlight (2001). The result is probably their best album, certainly with respect to the vocals, in 15 years. Yes, it's that good. Ogre Tones is packed solid with "heavy Beatles" hits that hold their own against King's X classics and even the weaker tracks are compelling enough to resist pressing the skip button.

The highlight is "Freedom," which was originally a catchy and crunchy B-side from the Ear Candy (1996) era. Indeed, much of this album can be described as Ear Candy kicked up a few notches.

Some listeners, including myself, will be disappointed that the band removed some pro-life lyrics in the song in favor of an inside joke about the band's sound tech, Jay Phebus. I think it's a bit much to say the band is "selling out" here. It's really the only place the joke will fit, and the song's overall message about freedom being abused, whether it be to "terminate my fetus if it don't fit it in" (the original lyric) or to join the KKK, get elected and set your own salary, or a number of other questionable practices, is still poignant.

Other great songs include the album's first single, "Alone," which begins with Tabor screaming, "No one should be made to feel alone!" Bassist dUg Pinnick repeats similar thoughts in the verses, and drummer Jerry Gaskill joins the trio for some powerful harmonies in the chorus.

In a funky, existentialist tune, most reminiscent of "Everybody Knows a Little Bit of Something" from the critically acclaimed Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, dUg urges the listener to "Bebop, be alive, y'all, what you gonna do?" In "Bebop," as in "Get Away" (the lone song on the album with a profanity), dUg raises his difficulties with understanding why God allows bad things to happen to good people. "Positive music" purists may dislike this theme, but these same questions are raised in Job and in the Psalms and I don't see King's X offering any wrong answers on this album. Instead they conclude, "It's something I don't understand. I know nothing. It's what I am."

"If" is the best King's X ballad yet and will hopefully replace the overrated "Goldilox" in their live setlist, while the rumbling and appropriately cacophonic "Open My Eyes" asks, "What does it take to get to the point where you want to kill someone? Where is that place, that line you have to cross, where you want to kill someone?"

In short, Ogre Tones is an outstanding album and a must-buy for anyone who enjoys heavy guitars combined with Beatlesque harmonies.

5 tocks