Review Summary: Rosewood Annie is Jonny Renken on vocals, Trevor Day on drums and Ben Rato on guitar and Eric Chubey on bass
The Totem is a well put together, albeit evidently imperfect first effort from a band out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I've spent my whole life listening to music, and I write reviews regularly as a hobby (although I post rarely), yet never have I taken a crack at a local act so I've decided to rectify that by writing a review on a band I actually went to high school with. With that being said, I'm going to try and keep this review as unbiased as possible and look at their first EP, "The Totem" as objectively as possible. This being an EP I'm just going to review track by track.
The record begins with the song "Philadelphia Collins" a fun and bouncy radio rock track which is admittedly enjoyable, but I personally feel leaves a lot to be desired. The main riff feels uninspired and generic. The bass work is tight but it seems to just stick like glue to the guitar and never creates an identity of its own. It serves its purpose, but again just feels like a lower guitar than an instrument of its own merit. Otherwise the track is solid enough, great vocals and good drumming. 2.5/5
Track two is Tranquility of the Neighbourhood, which is a significant step up from a lot of the issues I had with Philadelphia Collins. The Bass still follows the guitar quite closely during the chorus but follows a separate groove along with the drums while the guitar chugs rhythmically during the verses. Renken's vocals are their strongest on this track as they will ever get, and I personally consider this the absolute highlight of the record. The performances are tight, the songwriting is on point. A fantastic track. 5/5
The absolute high stays pretty high but diminishes slightly with Tonka, a heavier track than we've seen so far. The lyrics in this track are very moody and in theme with the tone of the rest of the track. The instrumentation here is simple but effective. The real highlight of this track is Day's fantastic drumming, which is all over the place, never remains complacent and as far as I'm considered it absolutely steals the show here. Another great track. 4.5/5
The second to last track, In my Defense, feels like it's trying a bit too hard to be "rough" as it were. The riff is aggressive, and following suit, the usually very well sung Jonny Renkin instead opts to scream nearly the entirety of the song which is a crying (or perhaps screaming) shame. Otherwise the instrumentation of the record isn't anything particularly special but it isn't bad. An average, if not disappointing track. 3/5
The final track on this EP is called Cancer Culture, and aside from track two, this is an incredibly well put together song. The drumming never misses a beat, the guitar and bass have a quality that blends the best aspects of both near perfectly, and the vocals soar and punch with a proper aggression that vocalist Jonny Renken's voice seems to naturally acquire in his higher register, as apposed to the flippant screaming of the previous track, but the real kicker of this track is the sudden emotional and slow part about three minutes in which jumps into an almost breakdown including vocal harmonies and fantastic work from Ben Rato on guitar. Another incredible song. 5/5
All in all, this record starts on a stutter but ends with a roar. It is absolutely worth every penny and I for one am excited to see what the band produces next.
