Otep

Otep
Otep's lead vocalist, Otep Shamaya, on the streets of Los Angeles
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Nu metal alternative metal gothic metal rap metal extreme metal
Years active	2000–2013, 2014–present
Labels	Capitol Victory Koch, EMI Napalm
Website	otepsaves.me
Members	Otep Shamaya Ari Mihalopoulos Justin Kier Andrew Barnes
Past members	Former members

Otep is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California formed in 2000. They have released two EPs, six studio albums, and one live album. As of December 2013, they are no longer under their previous label Victory Records and currently are signed with Napalm Records.

Otep began as a band in Los Angeles, California, in late 2000. The name Otep is from Otep Shamaya's stage name and is an anagram for "Poet". They were invited to play Ozzfest before they had signed to a label after Sharon Osbourne witnessed their live performance. They have since played Ozzfest several times. Otep signed with Capitol Records after a few shows and without a demo, purely on the power of their live performance. They started gigging around Los Angeles a lot and released the Jihad EP in 2001.

The band released their album Sevas Tra with Terry Date on June 18, 2002, and then played several gigs at the Ozzfest and was considered one of the prime bands there in 2002. Their first time at Ozzfest was in 2001 with their eighth gig. The first album peaked at 145 on the Billboard 200 and 86 on the UK Albums Chart.

On July 27, 2004, Otep released their 2nd album House of Secrets and it was produced by Greg Wells. The album peaked at 93 on the Billboard 200 and 102 on the French Chart.

After 3 years of touring, on March 20 during 2007 they signed to Koch Records and they released their third album titled The Ascension and supported it with constant touring with Static-X starting in the spring of 2007. Despite the original release date, the album was delayed indefinitely due to the recent Capitol/Virgin Records merger. It peaked at 81 on the Billboard 200 and 6 on the US Independent Charts. The album also had about 10,200 album copies sold in its first week of release.