Otep

Otep (anagram for Poet) is a band featuring a lead female singer, Otep Shamaya. Arguably the only female singer who can pull off such a style, screamo/heavy metal. Otep herself is a poet and writes all her songs from her heart, based on past experiances, political opinions, and mochary of Christianity. Otep is thought of as a religion by its fans, looked up to like a Messiah, the fans even have a religious style name for themselves, "Shadow Soliders." "But through the veins of decay I'll remain to betray To live like Caesar To die like Jesus To build my own religion No gods, no laws To celebrate pain Forsaken and ashamed To watch them all Crawl beneath us On this bed of nails and regret Dying of fevers, betrayal, and sweat I cry" - Nein The lyrics of the band are hard hitting and well worded, and often people are connected and can relate to the lyrics the first or second time they here them. Otep is a fantastic poet and all her songs seem to be exactly what the fans are feeling, but cant find the words to describe it themselves. "If god is my father, I am an orphan" Shattered Pieces "I remember suffering, I remember feeling in the sting of childhood injections, holy bruises, sweet infections" - Emptee "My sanity wrote a suicide note but one of us is illiterate And the other is blind" - Nein "I am my own creation, I am self-made" - Self-Made "I forfeit resurection to escape the pain, I hate my life" - Buried Alive Oteps first album, Jihad, was released in June, 2001 with only five tracks. Sevas Tra (Art Saves) was released June 02, and the most recent, House Of Secrets, released 04. Otep is currently (as of july 2006) recording their next album, due out on 2007. Oteps website, http://www.otep.com features a self-expression art project called Eye am Eye. Fans send in their faveroit self expression pictures of themselves, and Otep puts it on the website for viewers. Also avalible on the website are music videos, downloads, merchendise, and help websites for gay and lesbian teens (because Otep herself is a lesbian) people who are getting abused, raped, preganat, and so on. Shadow Soldiers