OTEP To Release 'Atavist' In April

California's OTEP will release its new album, "Atavist", on April 26 via Victory Records. Former THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN drummer Gil Sharone laid down the drum tracks on the CD, which will be released in both standard and CD/DVD deluxe editions. The latter will feature expanded artwork and a poetry book, interviews, a poetry-reading montage, behind-the-scenes footage and music videos.

OTEP frontwoman Otep Shamaya had the following to say about "Atavist": "This album is a return to the umbra, to the darkest parts of me. I am fortifying this fortress of sound with Cyclopean masonry.

"The language on my lips is forged from forbidden tongues 12 lifetimes old. I am the heart of the gorgon, the broken mind of the lunatic, the courage of the martyr, the voice of the insurrectionist, the agog of the alchemist, I am the defiance in the aching souls waiting for the flame, I am the mighty Minotaur raging against the labyrinths of isolation and sadness.

"There is a purposeful primal spirit to this record, a coded provocation to remember our connection to the infinite, to the mysterious, to each other."

OTEP's fourth full-length studio album, "Smash The Control Machine", sold around 10,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 47 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released on August 18, 2009 via Victory Records.

Otep Shamaya was nominated for "Outstanding Music Artist" in the 21st annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards.

An outspoken advocate of gay rights, Shamaya serves as a key figure in the movement to promote fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Quality multi-camera footage of OTEP performing the song "Blood Pig" at The Boardwalk in Orangevale, California on July 30, 2010 can be viewed below.