Generation Doom Otep Artist

The seventh LP from the always provocative and unrepentant {|Otep Shamaya|}-led group, {|Generation Doom|} finds {|Otep|} as punitive as ever, raging against the machine and then some via an 11-track assault that touches on everything from LGBT rights to Isis. The album's earliest moments are also its most brutal, with {|Shamaya|}'s politically and socially charged lyrics delivered with Gatling-gun ferocity over an equally vitriolic nu-tech-metal foundation -- {|Shamaya|}'s newly adopted climate change/Mad Max-inspired Imperator Furiosa guise, which adorns the cover, adds even more fuel to the fire. Opener Zero, as in Zero fuc#s given, is a blistering rap-metal rant that's also surprisingly fun. Same goes for the aptly named Feeding Frenzy, which sees sees {|Shamaya|} continuing to administer negative fuc#s over a thick bedrock of double kick-drum-saturated buzzsaw guitars/synths that invoke Burn-era {|Nine Inch Nails|}. The Middle Eastern-tinged Lords of War -- I'd rather be in battle than in peace, I'd rather be a wolf than a sheep -- introduces a darker, more cosmopolitan sort of momentum, but a poorly conceived, {|Marilyn Manson-esque|} cover of {|Lorde|}'s Royals quickly kills the mood. However, late-album highlights like the defiant Equal Rights, Equal Lefts -- He called me a dyke, I called him an ambulance -- and the punishing title track help to elevate some of {|Generation Doom|}'s less immediate offerings, resulting in another relatively solid outing from the group that should please fans both old and new. ~ James Christopher Monger