This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
That scene in The Exorcist when Linda Blair is all sweet and innocent one minute, then telling the priest what his mother is doing in hell the next minute? Set that to a Marilyn Manson soundtrack and you’ve got Otep, an L.A. aggro-metal quartet led by singer Otep Shamaya.
Capable of going from girlishly vulnerable to Satanically bloodcurdling at the drop of a beat, Shamaya and her unbelievable voice — not to mention her frank, disturbingly mesmerising lyrics about sexual abuse and incest — are the secret weapons that elevate her band above the screeching, thudding masses of black metal that currently infest the marketplace. With Sevas Tra (Art Saves backwards), she demands to be heard. And with what she’s got to say and the way she says it, we’ll be listening to every word.
