OTTTO is a trio out of Venice Beach that features a style that combines thrash and funk with modern metal. Life is a Game (ORG) is their debut album. Perhaps the most notable member of the band is their bass player, Tye Trujillo, the son of Metallica’s Robert Trujillo.
The band started making waves with their performances at Lollapalooza, BottleRock Napa, and has been a member of Suicidal Tendencies like his dad was 30 years ago. Tye is the touring bassist of Korn, and even contributed some new guitar parts on the new version of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets for the popular character of Eddie Munson, heard on the recent season of Stranger Things.
Perhaps to no surprise, Trujillo is the stand out on the album. Life Is A Game is full of plenty of groovy and heavy foundational bass lines. The rest of the band does their part by adding thrashy riffs and some good harmonies. ‘Dance of the Dead’ is by far the strongest track on the album and highlights the band on the top of their game.
When OTTTO ups the tempo, you can feel the aggression and get into the groove. This changes when the band slows things down, which they do all too often on this recording. When the music slows down in songs such as ‘Trip’, the dynamics can drop a touch. The vocals also don’t always hit the mark, such as on ‘My Pain’, which is unfortunate as there are some good jams to be found here. However, when Bryan Ferretti goes into a more thrashy / hardcore vibe, like on ‘Skyscraper’, OTTTO really hits their stride.
OTTTO is a young band and this is their first official full-length release, and they have plenty of room to grow. While Life Is A Game feels uneven in places, there is more than enough of a solid foundation to build on here.
Buy the album here:
6 / 10
ANDREW RISCH