ARTIST:
> Black Totem
ALBUM:
> I Brought You Back
GENRE:
> Dirty Garage Rock
PUBLISHER:
> Hockey Champ Records / Tar Honey Records
YEAR:
> 2009
FORMAT:
> 7"
TOTAL PLAYTIME:
> 12:35
Side A
[01]Walk 'til I'm Lost
[02]The Blood
[03]I Get Carried Away
Side B
[01]I Brought You Back
[02]Black Smoke
AUTHOR:
> M
Black Totem, formed in the spring of '08, is a duo from Finland. Their style is a mix of blues, garage rock and heavy metal, and this is their debut release. The duo uses only drums, a guitar and vocals to execute their music.
Side A's opener starts slowly, but after it gets in full motion it reveals well what the band is about: the somewhat lo-fi, even slightly gritty and multi-dimensional guitar starts shredding it's repetitive and simplistic riffs, and the nicely varying drums back the riffs up really well. The diverse guitar-sound keeps the songs interesting and the drums are spot-on, amplifying the songs' hooks. The vocals are hoarse shouts, and their repetitive lyrics are bound to stick to your mind. The opener is pretty much the hit song of the record due to it's amount of catchiness, slight groove (especially in the bridge) and surprisingly diverse soundscape. This song is bound to kill when performed live. "The Blood" is quite a let-down after such a strong song. It's riffs seem tame in comparison, and it's really short chorus doesn't have much appeal. The song has attempt, but it falls short of it's capabilities. Just for speculation's sake, I wonder how it would've sounded if it's parts were lenghtened? Song three is luckily again a strong one, and despite it's simplisticity in the riff-department it catches on like the plague. The vocals are really keen and energetic despite their harshness, and are bound to get you shouting along. The simple riff is easily memorized, but it's fast-ish tempo and the occasional breaks really lift it up to a new level. It also has a simply great, groovy and doomy mid-part that fits in great.
Side B starts with the short "I Brought You Back", and it's really repetitive break-based riffing and the most repetition-based lyrics on the EP make sure that this song will stick to your mind already on the first listen. The song's actual hook is the really groovy bridge-part and the simply greatly fitting drums that will pretty surely get you headbanging. After this short piece one gets to hear the longest song on the EP, lasting for over four minutes. It's a really dirty and doomy one, and it's really low on hooks. It has a pretty decent bridge-part with, again, quality drumming to keep up your attention, and the shouted vocals have a great deal of emotion in them. The song still falls short from what it'd be capable of simply due to the lack of hooks; the song sounds promising all the way, but it doesn't lift off at any point, leaving behind a slightly dull image. It's a worthy effort with a nice fume-induced atmosphere, but it has the capabilities of being a greater song.
The used guitar is (I presume) a some kind of a cigar box guitar, which gives it's sound a nice primitive touch and a vast sound. The guitar sound scale varies from clean, bassy and almost acoustic to distorted, dirty and somewhat heavy, giving the music a nice bluesy and even southern touch, whilst also giving a hint about the band's influences. The overall soundscape is pleasantly clear despite the lo-fi recording equipment, so that even though the end result is gritty and raw, the riffs don't get mushy at any point despite the vast guitar-sound. Visually things are fine, although I don't see the connection between the front- and back covers and the insert. I hope that the band will think more about the visual side on the next release, and hopefully they'll manage to create a connection between all the images and colouring choices. Nonetheless it's refreshing to see a release that doesn't have any digital-sharp images and fonts on it - the EP looks as hand-made and primitive as the music sounds.
If you like to hear something downright honest and from-the-heart, I'd recommend you to check out Black Totem. This EP shows well what the band is going to do and what they are capable of; sure, they have room for development, but I'd be surprised if the EP left you cold. These fellows are talented in their craft and know how to create hooks in their songs and how to fill the soundscape with this sparse amount of instruments, and in my opinion they have pretty much found the nature of the project already. I hope that they make more daring choices on their next release, as I believe that they left some ideas unused due to this being their debut.
Do also check out the lyrics, they're a really appealing and even disturbing combination of blood, pain, and slight occult psychedelia compressed into a short and catchy form.