To think, I never would have heard of OTEP if not for the continuous whining and belly-aching from a co-worker of mine who has some absurd story about how OTEP stole his career. Anyways, OTEP’s debut album is probably the heaviest thing Capitol Records has put out in a while. After the intro, “Blood Pigs” offers some aggressive vocals & heavy, (albeit) basic riffs. “T.R.I.C.” offers up some fast riffing, but it’s set to slow, groovy beats and unfortunately we have to hear Otep Shamaya do a bad Tarrie B. impersonation. She redeems herself with some harsh growling, but it’s not enough to save the song. “My Confession” on the other hand, offers up some moody, somber guitar work, tribal drumming, and a very heavy chorus. “Sacrilege” starts out promising, but eventually the band resorts to the same bad MY RUIN-styled rap metal, which becomes silly and annoying at the same time. And that’s basically it. The band occasionally breaks out some aggression and Otep Shamaya does some harsh vocals and when that happens, the band is pretty good. But the heaviness is used sparingly and usually just at the end of a song. To their credit, OTEP is pretty heavy for a major label band, but when you realize that there are multitudes of underground bands doing this style of music a thousand times better, Sevas Tra becomes irrelevant. (Capitol)