Sure enough, Otep comes out guns blazing in several songs on "Kult 45", blasting everyone who stands in her way. To no one's surprise, President Donald Trump and the rest of the United States government is in the line of fire most of the time, although Otep states that the raw and dirty lyrics are meant to empower the listener, to make themselves heard in the political climate. Well, it certainly work to some degree, but I bet you all that there are a ton of people that are gonna interpret these lyrics in a different way. Take "Shelter In Place" for example, where Otep is complaining about all these school shootings, asking the NRA how many kids they have killed today. The message is in theory good, but could have possibly delivered a little better (and it does not help that in the video she called the NRA a terrorist group, yikes).
Anyway, most of Otep's music is all about attitude, and we certainly got buckets full of those. Songs like "Molotov", "Undefeated", and "Cross Contamination" has Otep going at full force, rapping her way through the haters like a warm knife through butter. You can say what you want about her style of nu/alternative metal, but you have to admit that her confidence levels are high enough to carry even the more questionable parts of the record, like this one line in "Invisible People" that just makes me laugh every time (sorry, not sorry).
"I've got something to say, and it's gonna be savage/Fuck you in English, fuck you in Spanish" (followed by a bunch of fuck you's)
As always when it comes to Otep records, "Kult 45" is at its best when the messages are accompanied with a meaty and groovy riff. Guitarist Ari Mihapoulos can certainly deliver some great memorable riffs when he wants to, with some of the better ones are in the heavy and scary "Said The Snake", and also "To The Gallows". The instrumentation is otherwise an after thought in "Kult 45", which honestly does not surprise me, but I wished for some more meat to this bone. I do not care that they try to mimic Rage Against The Machine in "Wake Up", give me some inspiration. Well, maybe they do not get enough screen time, with half of the songs being under 3 minutes.
Amidst all this aggression we have some more laid back moments, with both "Undefeated" and "Boss" being more of a spoken word effort, with very little music and a lot of Otep rapping. Then at the end of the record we have a ballad. Yep, Otep made a ballad that is called "Be Brave", which feels so strange for several reasons. It does not really fit into the album, and to be quite frank, it does not match with Otep's personality as well. Then we have the fact that "Be Brave" sounds like something Evanescence would conceive during their hey days, so that is... certainly something. As said, it is strange to say the least.
One last thing I want to mention before I sum things up, a bonus track that certainly caught my attention. It is called "The Tribe Speaks", and it is not a song, it is a half an hour track with several of Otep's fans calling in, telling how much her music has meant to them and how much they love her. I am not sure why this track exist, probably to show how big Otep's "tribe" is and that it can be a force to be reckoned with, but it could also be seen as a ego boost for Otep, a reminder of what she has accomplished. One thing is for certain, Trump is not popular in the "Tribe", with most of these callers just saying "fuck Trump". My favourite has to be a guy who described Trump's administration with a flushing toilet, he got a chuckle out of me.
"Kult 45" is ultimately a very, VERY uneven record. It is like that one South Park episode when Cartman used a machine gun to hold off the Chinese mafia. Sure, he is dangerous as hell, but the bullets are flying everywhere, barely hitting anything. Otep has a ton of firepower at her disposal, but I do not feel like she had the means this time around to focus it all for it to be lethal, leading to an album that lacks a musical direction and some sure fire knock out punches. Her tribe will surely still stand by her since she is still speaking her mind and doing what she want to do, but for a more neutral listener, "Kult 45" is a more hard pill to swallow than some other album she has made.
Songs worthy of recognition: Said The Snake, Molotov, To The Gallows
Rating: 5/10 Shelters In Place
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