  
13 years strong this year for nu-metal act Otep,
forming in the turn of the millennium these guys
have put out 2 EP’s and this right here
makes for their 6th studio album, not only that
but lead vocalist and only remaining original
member Otep Shamaya has stated outright that this
will be the bands final album. They are renowned
for their extremely sinister music with extremely
ranged vocals reminiscent of a tortured soul dwelling
in the depths of hell, like Samara from The Ring
if she could sing.
Now the music Otep produce has always been of
an extremely violent and sinister nature, Shamaya
has the vocal style that is so aggressively horrifying
you would think they took her from behind the
high priority locked door within a mental asylum
after she had been abused and drugged all of her
life. One minute there will be heavy breathing
alongside whispered dark poetry if you will which
is creepy as hell but then the guitar tone will
drop and these twisted tortured screams will bellow
out like something from an exorcism. This is more
like the soundtrack to a film like Saw as opposed
to an album that I would enjoy driving around
to or blasting at the gym, but not all of Otep’s
music has been like this as “Blood Pigs”
was one of my favourite songs during my teens
as there was a rhythm to go along to and a thick
riff with accompanying vocal melodies that were
still just as sinister, whereas here it feels
like the musical accompaniment is just here as
a backing to Shamaya’s vocals to not make
it seem like an audio diary of a mad woman.
So then in my personal opinion this isn’t
exactly a successful send of for Otep, maybe they
should have just called it quits after their last
one. It isn’t exactly awful but let’s
put it like this; I won’t be listening to
Hydra again after today, it’s just not for
me, I’ll stick with The Ascension and Sevas
Tra thank you very much.
2.5/5
Review by James Webb
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