### Otep: Hydra

#### 12/04/13 || Ironpants

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

I can appreciate the most artsy crap that artists in general spew out. If you take a step back and try to figure out what the meaning is with what’s presented, you can open doors to your inner self and explore new dimensions, awakening parts of your mind you didn’t know about. Well, I guess Otep just opened the floodgates to my lower intestines and I’m not sure we want to explore that region of my inner dimension. But let’s take it to the break-down as some kid in a metalcore band would do…

We all know about Otep (?) so I won’t dig too deep in the history more than mentioning that she actually has produced some not to shabby tunes in the past. Yes, I’m talking about the early works because somewhere on the way, her common sense went A.W.O.L. and she lost her musical touch when drifting along in the art form “spoken word”. OK, English isn’t my first language, and maybe that’s why I don’t really appreciate the “speaky” parts of Otep, but when I come to think about it, spoken word isn’t even interesting in my native language either so… go figure.

If the musical content on the album was way out there and delivering massive overwhelming experiences that left you drained for hours, and also changed your everyday life totally I could very much deal with the spoken words. But, sadly that’s not the case. Instead it leaves you hanging there, waiting for a mind explosion or an overload of emotions that never comes. It’s almost like getting it on with your better half, and she leaves you waiting to “slip in to something more comfortable”, and after you’ve waited for 20 minutes you go look and find her passed out in a pool of puke, spooning with the toilet bowl.

The music is pale and dreary and you get the feeling that it is almost not there. When it appears from time to time, it is nu-metal-ish as usual and not that different from early Korn or any similar act that has taken their sound from them, and to be really honest it doesn’t appeal to me at all. It may a bit harsh but it is quite obvious that it is only there to provide a little backdrop for Otep Shamaya’s lyrics and/or screams, growls, cries and all the other suspicious noises she create.

The vocals are as usual ranging from normal talking to growling grunts and everything in between. I gotta admit that she packs a real brutal pipe when she goes to the dark side, but the problem then, is that the sound guy was asleep and almost all growling cracks or distorts the mix. Maybe it’s on purpose, or better yet I bet that that it is on purpose, but I can’t understand why? Is it to bring some kind of packing power to the voice? “I growl so fucking loud so not even the mixer-board can handle me”, or is it intended to create some other vibe that I can’t grasp? To me it sounds like shit, and proper mixing would have made it more brutal and actually grabbed you by the balls. Now you go “Oh, what the hell happened there, did she swallow the freakin’ mic?”.

The songs that are trying to be actual real songs, is nothing to do somersaults about. But the album starts out with “Rising” that is a quite eerie and spooky piece, and it gets your attention. “Blowtorch nightlight” presents a rather standard nu-metal piece that you all heard before somewhere. “Seduce & destroy” is some half time tired piece. “Crush” tags along and then the album takes a break. Tracks 4-8 is almost only spoken words with some noises from the band and here and there they burst out in full on playing, but very seldom. And then there’s a little more meat for you musical needs, before falling back in the speaky parts. The album ends with “Hag” that is the best song on the album and is quite riffy and finally give you some action. Well OK, there’s one more track and that is “Theophagy”, but surprise, it’s an ending rant before pulling that old trick with silence for like 15 minutes and then ending with a scream from Otep. I thank you for that by the way, nice prank when you like me, listen to music while faking sleep, and you shit in your bed because you are halfway joining glands with Mr. Sandman.

Nope, this doesn’t cut it. It’s the same spoken to pieces crap that we heard before, and it’s sad, because with that voice she could produce some quite memorable musical compositions that metalheads could go apeshit to, with fists in the air and headbanging like crazies. If you wanna talk about stuff, you could release an audio book and still feed your need to be heard. Apparently this is also Otep’s last album ever, and you won’t see me sobbing in tears for that.

I’d rather shove a flute up my dickhole and have somebody play “I Surrender” by Rainbow on it, than listen to this again.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Victory
- Website: Otep Facebook
- Band
- Otep Shamaya: vocals
- Markus Estrada: guitars
- Rani Sharone: bass
- Gil Sharone: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Rising
- 02. Blowtorch nightlight
- 03. Seduce & destroy
- 04. Crush
- 05. Hematopia
- 06. Necromantic
- 07. Quarantine
- 08. Voyeur
- 09. Apex predator
- 10. Feral game
- 11. Livestock
- 12. Hag
- 13. Theophagy