The title track on the third album from Porn, The Ogre Inside, marks a new high point for these French industrial rockers and is accompanied by a striking video that underscores the cinematic nature of the band’s composition. It all begins with the music however; the song is a superbly produced and coherent piece that has a dramatic flow from the first and never forsakes the song in favor of empty instrumentation.
“The Ogre Inside” definitely looks to challenge listeners some, but it also remains accessible throughout thanks to the sterling guitar work and the songwriting’s unerring sense of how to best capture and hold the audience’s attention. Porn doesn’t shy away from their influences, but the band’s artistic vision has developed to such an extent that they never risk self indulgence or imitation. Instead, their work comes across as music infused with a sense of what has come before while looking towards the present and future with a fierce, uncompromising spirit.
Hear the complete Porn ‘The Ogre Inside’ album here
There’s definitely a strong sense of the personal propelling the song. Band founder, chief songwriter, and vocalist Philippe Deschemin might recall Trent Reznor in his vocal delivery at certain points, but he burns through every line of “The Ogre Inside” with his own personality and dark charisma able to give added meaning to the song’s lyrical content.
The primary melodic instrument for the song is moody piano that threads itself just beneath the surface of the mix while thunderous drums and fiery guitars rage all around the listener. This is a song with a strongly orchestrated air, but it never sounds inordinately plotted out and moves, instead, with an organic quality. Outside of the obvious overdubs, “The Ogre Inside” gets itself across as a practically live cut and never risks sounding over-rehearsed.
It, likewise, never tests the listener’s patience. This is despite the fact that the song clocks in at just a hair over nine minutes in length – it is no small feat for any band, working in any style, to keep an audience’s attention for nearly ten minutes and not creatively exhaust themselves in the process. It’s thanks to a marriage of theatrical delivery, substantive lyrical content, and attention grabbing dynamics that we stick with this song over a near epic running time and the experience is further enhanced when the song’s heard in the context of its accompanying video.
Porn are, unquestionably, working at or near the peak of their talents with this release and it serves notice that they are one of the most challenging bands working in this style today. “The Ogre Inside” is a fully immersive experience for the audience and not one second of the song and video feels anything less than fully realized. It makes for one of the more impressive listening and viewing experiences of this soon to be closed year.
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-review by Michael Saulman
