Review Summary: 4.5 of 5, you will have your money well spent on this release, while others and bigger bands fail to deliver. I can't wait what else we get in the future from Totem, but this debut (I believe, other than a short EP) is very promising.
My first Review, English is my second language...so please bear with me.....but I couldn't help to spread the word about this band.....
Totem / Day before the end / 2005 / CD
1. Taste of live
2. The Race (P.O.C.B.F.E.O.O.M.)
3. Merry-go-round
4. For
5. Thrash the south
6. Lost dimension
7. Day before the End
Time: 37:55
Have you ever had this?
You hear one song, it immediately catches you and you start banging your head and you simply can not get enough of it, even if you listened to it 20 times in a row, or you get goose bumps every time .....
This is pretty much what happened to me when I first heard "Thrash the South" by Totem.
The song is like "99" from "The Haunted", you can't sit still, you just have to bang your head. Everything in Thrash the South" is perfect, the melody, the riffs, the acoustic parts, the vocals, the solo. Everything fits and even after the 20th time it doesn't get boring.
Well, of course pretty high were my expectations for the entire Album. They're a small band from Poland, which I had never previously heard before and the Album came out in 2005, was exclusively only available directly through the record label Empire Records in Poland and that might've been Totems burden, because they got so much potential and talent.
Fortunately it got re-released by Metal Mind Productions.
As far as I know they have a female Vocalist and she does a very good job just like Arch Enemys Angela Gossow.
After I finally had the Album, I couldn't wait to give it a spin and the opener "Day before the End" tells you exactly what's in store and that "Thrash the South" is not the highlight of the Album.
They play with acoustic guitars, but more as a guide for the distorted parts so it's always pretty heavy or like in the case of TtS it's the catchy line that carries the song. They also use a cello with a bow a lot which kinda makes me wonder if these two significances will determine the style of Totems future releases and as a matter of fact, they are in the Studio working on the new Album as I type this.
I would describe the Bands Genre as a mix of Death and Thrash. I do not want to go through all songs n particular, they all are very good and they deliver in this little more than 30mins what others can't in an hour . It is a very solid Album that will remain in your Player for quite a while. "Lost Dimension" caught me immediately, with the Mexican or Spanish influenced parts as well as fast tapped guitar parts, some very technical.
In some areas the Album has something classical, because it's not one riff repeated over and over again, there is a straight line, it's not chaotic, but it changes quite a bit and that makes it special. Overall it is a complex Album, even after 3 years now, because I bought it in 05, I still like to listen to it and "Taste of life", "Day before the End" and "Thrash the South" just seem never to get boring.
You can download "Thrash the South" on their website:
www.totem.metal.pl/index_content.html under "D-LOAD"...the entire Album is as good as that song!
or the video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8HxQLWsC74
