Unlike Ogre's earlier Skinny Puppy work, ohGr has a more conventional structure to its music as well as a lighter tone, lyrically and musically.
The band was officially formed in 2001, although the material for the first album, Welt dates back to the mid-nineties, having been held up due to legal trouble with American Records. The first work produced by the band was actually the soundtrack for the computer game 'Descent II', but it was a number of years before their first album was released. Welt was originally the title of the group, a long standing acronym from early Skinny Puppy years when, shortly after Bill Leeb (of Front Line Assembly) left the band, Ogre graffitied "Wilhelm Eats Lunch Today" around Vancouver due to their then-acrimonious split. It was then refined to the less antagonistic "When Everyone Learns Truth". It was later discovered that in the interval, the name had been taken by a Californian punk band.
ohGr's third album titled Devils in my Details was released on October 17th, 2008 in Germany, October 20th in the United Kingdom, and October 21st in the United States. ohGr toured in support of the album release during the autumn of 2008. At Comic-Con 2008, Ogre announced that Bill Moseley will be contributing to the new ohGr album, as a result of them becoming friends through Repo! The Genetic Opera. It was tentatively revealed in a chat with the band that an album of B-sides from Devils in my Details (entitled "D-Sides") and an album of unreleased material from the 1990s (entitled "Dfault") was due to be released. In October 2009 a link to www.wdihtf.com appeared on Skinny Puppy's website. When users sign up to the mailing list they receive a link to the song COLLIDOSKOPE which starts with many different voices saying "Welcome to Collidoskope".
HiLO
ohGr Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Set off the nature's hollow cost
From wince and when the day is never hollow
I feel as if I've gotten off
Are you high?
Are you low?
A wasted path so cluttered up
To realize as if it somehow mattered
Hope you feel you got what it's worth
Are you high?
Are you low?
Can you take mine?
Care to take mine?
Are you high?
Are you low?
The song HiLO by the industrial rock project Ohgr is a contemplative and somewhat abstract reflection on the nature of experience, perception, and self-awareness. The lyrics suggest a sense of incompleteness and hollowness in life, symbolized by a "nature's hollow cost", or the price of living in a world that often lacks meaning or fulfillment. The singer of the song has gone through a journey of some sort, perhaps a spiritual or psychological quest, and despite the struggles and obstacles they faced, they feel as if they have come out on the other side. This realization, however, is not necessarily cathartic or satisfying, but rather leaves the singer questioning whether it was all worth it.
The repeated refrain of "Are you high? Are you low?" seems to capture the ambiguity and paradox of life and human consciousness. On one hand, the highs and lows of emotional and sensory experience can be exhilarating and profound, but on the other hand, they can also be fleeting and ultimately meaningless. The chorus also introduces the idea of taking on somebody else's experience, or perhaps sharing one's own with another person, hinting at the possibility of connection and empathy as a way out of the hollowness.
Line by Line Meaning
When all is said and done before and in the hollow
Everything that can be said and done has been, and it all happened in a meaningless void.
Set off the nature's hollow cost
Pay the price for destroying the natural world.
From wince and when the day is never hollow
No matter which direction you look, every day is empty and meaningless.
I feel as if I've gotten off
I feel like I've escaped or disconnected from this bleak reality.
Are you high?
Are you intoxicated and unable to see the world clearly?
Are you low?
Are you trapped in a state of depression and hopelessness?
And left upon the trip you had to follow
You're stuck on a journey that you didn't choose, with no real destination in sight.
A wasted path so cluttered up
The road ahead is littered with meaningless obstacles and barriers.
To realize as if it somehow mattered
In the end, it all feels pointless, but we cling to the illusion that it means something.
Hope you feel you got what it's worth
I hope you feel like all the struggle and pain was worth it, even though it probably wasn't.
Can you take mine?
Would you like to take my burden and feel the weight of my despair?
Care to take mine?
Would you kindly take my pain and leave me in peace?
Are you high?
Do you feel a sense of false euphoria that distracts you from the bleakness of reality?
Are you low?
Do you feel swallowed up by the endless darkness and despair of the world?
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Kevin Graham Ogilvie, Mark Walk
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind