OTEP - "The_Ascension"
album review

The third album from the often underrated and sometimes controversial OTEP sees a change of pace from the onslaught of second album "House Of Secrets", and harks back to the multi-layered accessibility of first album "Sevas Tra". After months of uncertainty over whether the album would be released at all, never mind when, following the merger of their label Capitol Records with Virgin Records, "The_Ascension" finally appeared via Koch Records in October of 2007, three years after the release of "House of Secrets".

Worth the wait? Hell yeah, if anything the sound of OTEP as a band and the legendary Otep Shamaya's snarling voice has matured and settled into an OTEP-shaped space in the jigsaw puzzle of the metal market. A space that nobody other than OTEP could fill. Fact is, their style is so unique that there's no comparisons. Compare them to other female-fronted nu-metal/extreme-metal bands? You can't, Otep's voice defies that comparison and fairer comparisons would demand that you compare the band to male-fronted bands, which again falls through 'cos there's no male-fronted bands making quite the same type of music. The only way to review OTEP is to review them as the uniquely brilliant entity that they are, on the strength of the lyrical genius of Otep herself and the monumental instrumentation upon which her words cascade into your ears. "The_Ascension" sees the long-standing collaboration between Otep Shamaya and bassist "Evil" J McGuire continue, and brings on board new blood in the form of drum-destroyer Brian "Haggis" Wollf and six-stringer Aaron Nordstrom.

Several stand out tracks on the album, our personal faves being the very-unOTEP-like "Perfectly Flawed", about as close as OTEP would ever come to doing something soft. It's a moving song, something which you'll end up playing a lot. Don't be fooled by thinking from those words that there's no classic OTEP confrontational anthemic thunderstorm on this album though - those are present in spades, and none more so than the suitably-titled "Confrontation". There's a nod to the legendary Nirvana too, a band that Otep herself cites as a personal inspiration in interviews elsewhere, in the shape of a cover of the Nirvana track "Breed". This adds a bit of amusement of sorts to the album, it's a track you can't fail to like with its tongue-in-cheek lyrics, but all done in an easy-to-recognise OTEP style. Shows above all that Otep isn't limited to the throat-busting vocals you've heard on previous albums, but that she can handle whatever she deems necessary to create the band's instantly-recognisable sound.

Here's a couple of the videos from "The_Ascension" - the above-mentioned Nirvana cover "Breed" and "Ghostflowers" so you can check out the tracks yerself!

OTEP - "BREED"

OTEP - "GHOSTFLOWERS"

Overall there's no faulting "The_Ascension" and especially OTEP, for their sheer power, their pure aggression, their endless persistance, and their style all of which sets them far apart from the pack in terms of style and which will hopefully see them stay on the scene for a long time to come. Otep Shamaya herself has become a massive influence upon a scene which previously convinced itself that only guys could do extreme-style metal, and as a result of her strength, many girls have picked up that microphone and learned to roar. Your ears need this album. The world needs music like this that forces change and inspires those yet to come. Buy it online to get exclusive tracks, or pick up a copy in store wherever you regularly don't get ripped off on prices.

NoiseMatters rated: (6/5 - F***ING HARDCORE!)