Album Details

• Artist: Dear Black Diary
• EP:
Dear Black Diary
• Label: Year Of The Sun
• Year of Release: 2006
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2007-09-08

Here's an EP that shows unlimited promise and poise. Dear Black Diary are a relatively young bunch of Canadian metalheads, all inspired by one thing collectively; 'making fun of (guitarist) Brian'. That was taken from their myspace, and mentioned here because it made me giggle. The music found on this, their self-titled debut EP, will not make you giggle. Unless you're insane...

   Because that's what this is: 6 tracks of audio insanity. Crossing a bridge between the spazcore of Daughters, the hardcore mentality of Converge, mathcore noodling of DEP and re-enforcing the structure with their own creative blending of such influences, Dear Black Diary stretch the listener's attention span to the brink while straining the limits of your neck muscles. After a little intro (reminiscent of DEP's "Weekend Sex Change"), the EP's first killer cut "Life Is The Number One Cause Of Death" begins, and you quickly pick up on about a dozen aurally pleasing moments before the song has a chance to devolve into a swirling mass of sludge. You'll be amazed, throughout, by the tight and technical skill in drummer Robert Forsythe's playing, the double-guitar attack of Canning and Wilson, unrelenting and fierce. The vocals are more or less typical for this brand of metal, and that's a good thing because nothing too drastic is attempted in that department. The bass stays at a painfully-down-tuned level throughout, creating what the band calls 'swamp-chug'. A new term for me, but it fits.

   All it takes is this 15 minutes with Dear Black Diary to see the wonderful things on their horizon. The only other debut metal release I can recall being this impressed with recently is Car Bomb's Centralia, and if you read my review of that you know this to be some high praise for DBD. Can't wait for a full-length from these guys. Check this out all you fans of hard, math and spaz-core. You'll be glad you did.

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