Artist Otep

Named for leering, sensuously sinister frontwoman Otep Shamaya, Otep is the kind of Ozzfest act that titillates tweens and confounds those aging brooders with minds for more serious spins. There’s a lot of dumb fun to be wrung from the band’s guttural goth-metal—and the singer’s villainous sass and charisma grant her the right to the dubious title of nü-metal’s Gwen Stefani. Despite the commercial success of 2004 album House Of Secrets, Otep left Capitol Records after its release and is now ensconced on hard-rock/punk label Victory Records, which is behind 2009’s Smash The Control Machine.

Updated 02/04/2010