OTEP - Ascension
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CD Details
Artist: OTEPEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-10-30
Music Label: Koch Records
Soundtracks:
- Eet the Children
- Crooked Spoons
- Perfectly Flawed
- Confrontation
- Milk Of Regret
- Noose & Nail
- Ghostflowers
- Breed
- March Of the Martyrs
- Invisible
- Home Grown
- Communion
- Bonus Track 1
Music reviews of Ascension
Music Review: Equal parts ascension and descension...
Rating: 4 Stars
Otep finally gives us their new album `The Ascension' after a very long wait and much anticipation. In fact, the wait has been so long that I thought the band had split and the much talked about third studio album had been squashed. Well, the band is still intact and the album is here.
So, the question remains; was it worth the wait?
The answer, for the most part, is yes. When Otep released their debut studio album `Sevas Tra' I was impressed with their fervent aggressive approach to their music, creating an atmosphere that is so commanding and so moving it sends chills down the spine. I had some issues with the album (as far as the whole `rap/rock' thing was concerned) but overall it was a very impressive album. Their sophomore album `House of Secrets' was a huge improvement (I really need to review that album soon), mixing well the power and forcefulness of `Sevas Tra' with the soft-spoken eeriness of a séance. With `The Ascension' Otep drops their signature poetry readings and works hard to keep the blood pressure at an all-time high. This is both a positive and a negative.
The negative is that one of the things I loved about `House of Secrets' was the way many of the tracks subtlety pulverized the listener. You're strung along in this trancelike state while you listen to Otep's fragile vocals and the intricately constructed musical arrangements that sound as though they are about to shatter before the song lets out only to have our trance broken by Otep's harrowing screams and the sudden brutal awakening within the music and everything is so abruptly beautiful I could cry. I miss that here because in `The Ascension' everything is in your face and domineering. They do give us the hidden track `Adrenochrome Dreams' which is a beautiful answer to the spoken-word piece, but one is far from enough for me.
That doesn't mean that the album is a `misstep' in that it fails to deliver because overall the album delivers strongly. They bring on the intensity and it works in many cases, not so much in some others.
Tracks like `Crooked Spoons' bring a fire that ignites within the listener. Sure, it sounds a little conventional in terms of heavy metal (as in it doesn't sound all that original or inspired) but it works a magic that only Otep can work. I enjoy `Eet the Children', a track that covers the tragedy that is media's stronghold on our youth, but it's `Crooked Spoons' that truly jumpstarts the album. `Confrontation' is another track that captures brutality within its simplicity. It's not the most complicated track but it delivers quite a punch and offers a nice chant worthy chorus. `Homegrown' attacks the subject of abuse that is all too common in today's musical world. It ups the ante with crushing vocals but doesn't really deliver quite like it could. It sounds a bit amateurish. `March of the Martyrs' is the first track I heard of the album in rough demo form and the polished studio version lives up to my expectations; flawlessly commanding.
Speaking of flawless, Otep has never, and I want to emphasize the word `NEVER', sounded better than they do on `Ghostflowers', the absolute best track on the album. Everything about the track is orgasmic, from the intricacy of the musical arrangements to the delicacy of Otep's vocals. I just love that guitar work.
We all know that Otep has a thing against religion, and while I am a religious person I can understand and appreciate her loathing of certain facets of organized religion. They way that she rips them apart for their hypocrisy is so relevantly accurate you can't help but contemplate your own faith. On tracks like `Communion' and `Noose & Nail' especially she gives us her two sense of the world of God and neighbor. `Milk of Regret' goes a little tribal but it doesn't really lose me too much, it's just not as great as it could have been.
There are three tracks that do lose me; `Perfectly Flawed', `Invisible' and the Nirvana cover `Breed'. I never thought that I'd ever compare Otep to Hole but on these tracks she sounds so much like Courtney Love it's ridiculous. `Perfectly Flawed' has a few moments where it works, but then I remember that this is Otep and it hurts me deep inside to connect them to such an average at best type track. It's so mellow and uneventful it's almost painful. `Invisible' isn't as retched, but it's not much better. They should have never went anywhere near Nirvana territory, but why `Breed'? I mean if you're going to cover Nirvana go with something like `Heart Shaped Box', something that you could pull off. `Breed' is an utter mess. They just sound like a desperate garage band covering music that fails to inspire them.
In the end `The Ascension' delivers effectively; maybe not `brilliantly' but effectively. It is a step above their debut album but a step behind their sophomore album. If you swap `House of Secrets' and `The Ascension' in the Otep timeline you have a solid progression of musical brilliance. Until their fourth album this will hold us over with very little complaints.
Description of Ascension
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