Type in “Ogmasun”, and you get referred to a well-known, global distributor of books and everything else besides. The publicity gives an address of “cuttysarkofficial”, which whilst being the title of the third track on this album, is a bit of a cheek. That failed to activate, so I guessed the band’s site. This pretence to mystery may not be deliberate but claiming that the band is a “dizzying transgression of space and time, nothing else” and much more hyperbole is their doing or at least the label’s, so it had better be good.
I suppose “Out of the Cold” stood no chance of living up to the hype. After a laid back, over long acoustic opening, “Mammoth” bursts into life with explosive post-metal. A mix of control and unbridled energy follows. This is not ground-breaking. The sequence re-starts with the 12 minute “Square”. A solemn Cult of Luna style post metal rhythm is the initial signature. Predictably expanding to epic heights, the moment is now brief. Progressive post-rock follows. Irregular and frenzied, I pictured men throwing themselves about on stage. It is atmospheric. I’m not sure what story, if any, is being told but this has the air of Isis’s “Panopticon” with visions of clouds passing over an imaginary landscape. A quieter jazz piano section follows. “Square” ebbs and flows between quiet and stormy passages. It ends, and the cosmic sounds of “Cutty Sark” cut in. I thought this was going to develop into something but it remains a languid, intergalactic piece. What this has to do with the ship, which now rests at Greenwich as a museum piece, I have no idea. Part 2 of “Cutty Sark” is no more illuminating. Ogmasun now revert to the more familiar post rock-metal. It’s something we’ve all heard before. There is an experimental passage and a sultry piano piece before what promises to be an epic end, but that overextended its welcome too much for my liking.
If this was supposed to be the height of originality, then I missed something along the way. I didn’t find “Out of the Cold” exciting, it was frequently anti-climactic and frankly I couldn’t tell you what all the fuss was about.
(5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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