Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series, Women Of Rock Edition, where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore psychedelic tunes from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

Otep Shamaya (Otep)

Otep’s Shamaya is one of the most respected women in the metal genre. Otep is a band that broke through with their spastic and unpredictable songwriting along with the emotional vocals of Shamaya. The frontwoman is famous for shifting gears between maddening shrieks and screams, to more spoken vocal parts that bring an even more demented element to the already deranged music of Otep. In addition to an extreme metal frontwoman, she serves as a role model for women who may be battling with sexuality issues and the male-dominated metal realm.

Anyone who has followed the band Otep knows frontwoman Otep Shamaya is no shrinking violet. She’s smart, informed, opinionated and plenty outgoing particularly on stage and on album.

And because she is the main songwriter, because the group has been through a string of personnel changes that have left her as the sole original member of Otep — and last but not least, because the band is named after her, there’s a tendency to see Otep and the group’s music as being entirely her baby.

Shamaya made her debut in 2000 with her band OTEP, and released the full-length albums Sevas Tra (June 2002), House of Secrets (July 2004), The Ascension (October 2007), Smash the Control Machine (August 2009), Atavist (April 2011), Hydra (January 2013), and Shamaya unleashed her latest album, “GENERATION DOOM” via Napalm Records on April 15, 2016. The critically acclaimed album debuted on Billboard at #10 on the Independent Chart, #7 on the Rock Chart, #4 on the Hard Rock Chart and #109 on the Top 200 Albums Chart, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Shamaya is featured in The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies as a voice-over actor for creatures. Shamaya has been featured on HBO’s television series Def Poetry. In April 2015, Shamaya released her first edition of short stories titled “Movies in My Head”. The first printed collection of poetry and illustrations by Shamaya was self-published to the public in November 2006 Lulu.com. In August 2007, the e-book Little Sins, her first electronic collection of printed poems and illustrations was placed in book form on Lulu.com. In 2010, Shamaya was a GLAAD Nominee for Outstanding Music Artist, alongside Lady Gaga (who won) and Adam Lambert.