Otep Shamaya: "I Don't Know If I'll Make Another Record"

Otep‘s latest album “God Slayer“, may wind up being the final full-length from the band. Appearing recently on Belgian Jasper, vocalist Otep Shamaya relayed that the aforementioned effort—which sported numerous covers in addition to new material—could potentially be the last from the nü-metal outfit.

Shamaya stated:

“Well, I think you really have to love music, you have to love creating music and you have to love performing music to be in the industry of music. And since my last album, a lot of things have happened in my personal life — my oldest brother died, everybody worldwide had the big plague where we couldn’t trust the air we breathe.

So there was a lot going on at the time, and we were in quarantine here in the States and this label reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, would you like to do a cover album?’ I thought, ‘Uh, do I really?’ And then I’m thinking, ‘Okay, it’s quarantine. Nothing’s open. Nothing’s happening. I’m in the house. Why not?’

It just kind of came back to that. I missed it. I missed creating music and I missed that outlet. And I missed performing. Because I hadn’t played on U.S. soil since 2018. And so that’s what brought me back around. In symbolic terms, nine is the last single digit. So it is the last; it represents the last. I don’t know if I’ll make another record. But I had a really marvelous time creating this one with the people that I worked with… I mean, to me, this is probably my favorite sounding album, sonically. And I’ve been booming it in my car.”

This wouldn’t be the first time the future of Otep was put in question, as back in 2012, Shamaya had initially announced 2013’s “Hydra” as the ‘final’ Otep album. “The God Slayer” featured covers of Slipknot, Nirvana, Eminem and more.