Geekscape Music Reviews: OTEP

This week’s album review is for the fifth studio album by metal band Otep (also written as OTEP). Being a band that usually deals with political lyrics, this marked a change, as they used more religious based lyrics, and lyrics revolving around facing one’s fears. Most of the lyrics did, however, continue using the spoken word poem format of front-woman Otep Shamaya (who more often than not writes the songs out as poems before putting music to them).

The album, titled “Atavist” gets its name from the word atavism, or “the tendency to revert to ancestral type”. Think people in the modern age acting in the same manner of their ancestors. Steampunk is a good example actually. This ties into much of the lyrical content of the album, specifically the song “Atoms To Adam” (Adam being of biblical fame, and supposedly human kind’s oldest ancestor).

Usually on Otep’s albums, there are a few melodic style songs that are released as singles, and are more often than not “catchy” (examples being “Confrontation” and “Smash The Control Machine”). This album did not have such melodic songs, and was in itself a throwback to the band’s earlier albums, “Sevas Tra” and “House Of Secrets” most notably (this is yet another example of atavism used by Shamaya).

Instead of being melodic, the album brings a sense of brutality (which was actually really awesome) and anger (which is used quite well to fuel the brutality), mostly directed towards the lyrical themes (religion and fear). However, the one constant that “Atavist” does continue is the inclusion of spoken word poems on the album, namely “Baby’s Breath”. The album also has a solid length, coming in at just short of an hour, which is becoming more and more rare.

However, even with the clever musical ideas and continuation of what makes the band itself, the album was, as a whole, simply “meh”. It was hard to tell when one song was over and when another began, and only a few songs stuck out, one being a cover of “Not To Touch The Earth”, by The Doors.

So though it was a creative album, and held to what makes Otep “Otep”, the album wasn’t nearly as good as it could’ve been, and I’d have to say it ranks about third best out of their five albums, sitting behind “The Ascension” and “Smash The Control Machine”.

Overall rating: 2.5/5

Top picks:
“Drunk On The Blood Of Saints”,
“Remember To Forget”,
and “Fists Fall”

Forgetting to remember,
-JC