Otep (also written as OTEP or OT3P) are an American nu metal band formed in the fall of 2000 in Los Angeles, California fronted by Otep Shamaya. Otep began as a band in Los Angeles, California in late 2000.They were invited to play Ozzfest before they had even signed to a label after Sharon Osbourne witnessed their live performance. They have since played Ozzfest several times.Otep signed with Capitol Records after only a few shows and without a ... See more [+] demo, purely on the power of their live performance.They started gigging around Los Angeles a lot and released Jihad in 2001. The band released their album Sevas Tra with Terry Date on June 18th 2002 and then played several gigs at the Ozzfest and was consider one of the prime bands there in 2002.Their first time at Ozzfest was in 2001 with their 8th gig.The album peaked at 145 on the Billboard 200 and 86 on the UK Albums Chart.On July 27th 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 20th 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. In 2009, Otep signed with Victory Records.Their 2009 album, Smash the Control Machine released August 18th during 2009,included a reunion with former members Mark "Moke" Bistany on drums and Rob Patterson on guitar. The album also featured Koichi Fukuda on piano, and Emilie Autumn on violin, and a cowrite with songwriter, Holly Knight which resulted in 'You're A Woman Now'. Holly Knight previously cowrote Perfectly Flawed with Otep on The Ascension.It peaked at 47 on the Billboard 200 and 6 on the US Independent Charts.The band appeared with 2Cents, Five Finger Death Punch & Shadows Fall on the 'Shock & Raw Tour' of North America in the fall of 2009.On September 30th 2010, former bassist Jay McGuire left the band. During April 26th 2011,Otep released their 5th studio album, Atavist.The album peaked at 61 on the Billboard 200,10 on the Independent Charts and 19 on the US Rock Charts.On November 6th 2012, Otep released their first live album, Sounds Like Armageddon. In an interview, Otep Shamaya has stated that Hydra will be her band's final album.The album was released on January 22nd 2013 and peaked at 155 on Billboard 200.However, the band are still touring and have tours in places such as the USA's east coast and Australia for their Sounds of Armageddon tour.
