Otep

Otep is the name of both this brutish Los Angeles goth-metal band and its singer. These perennial Ozzfest faves, whose shock-cred has been abetted over the years by whispers of members indulging in black magic (silly) and cannibalism (sillier), deliver nihilistic, apocalyptic odes to the dark side. Murder, religious perversion, rape, political hypocrisy, abuse, and other themes of mayhem and soullessness are all on the menu — and when not baseball-batting your cranium with punishing riffs, Otep's music often descends into a swirl of Nine Inch Nails-ian gloom. Otep Shamaya (the singer), meanwhile, possesses a demonic, tormented death-yowl that makes that Slayer dude sound like Karen Carpenter by comparison. Look for the band to dig bloody talons into the flesh of songs from its upcoming third album, The_Ascension. It should be beautiful, people.