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Otep - Smash The Control Machine [Album]

Victory Records

by Matt D, November 11th, 2009 and has been Read 2370 times.
Last Edited by: Jack Stovin November 15th, 2009.

Otep are a band I had previously heard of via a few contacts, particularly during the era where a band was deemed nu-metal regardless if they had elements of other genres. After managing to gain support from Sharon Osbourne while unsigned, they’ve managed to gain somewhat of a cult following over the past few years from fans of the music and also Otep's lead vocalist's support of various causes such as PETA. She can also lay claim at being the only known lesbian in the metal genre.

The difference with OTEP is that the lyrics are mostly of a political nature, which runs the risk of being shuffled too easily into just being a female Rage Against The Machine or being called Coal Chamber clones (which the opener of Rise, Rebel, Resist does give off).

There are moments on "Smash The Control Machine" however that show different sides to the band such as 'Head (Of Medusa)' in which the Otep vocalist shows her singing voice is actually quite good (and to be fair I prefer it to the growling). The content also seem to be very varied with the self defense of a rape attack being one of the topics on the album’s closer, which turns into a revenge attack resulting in killing the perpetrator - which I’m guessing is the woman’s father [and a call to arms]. There’s also a sort of recycling with ‘Serv AsaT’ which seems to be the sequel to a track from 2002, in my opinion this could have been replaced more easily by the hidden track after the closer.

If there’s one song that I can pick as my favourite it’s the ‘ballad’ of the album which features Emilie Autumn guesting on 'Ur A Wmn Now' (yes, that’s how it’s spelt, reminds me of Reanimation by Linkin Park) and actually shows the more sensitive side to Otep rather than a band that’s all ‘let’s right wrongs’ all the way through their album.

"Smash The Control Machine" seems to be one of two halves that can’t make up it’s mind. I personally would prefer to hear more ballads, I think next time around that is if I do decide to venture into the world of Otep again which based on my impressions from "Smash The Control Machine" seems quite unlikely.