Labels: self released
Review by: Oli Saunders
Whilst I love Malaysian screamo, it’s nice to finally see some emo from this country that is a bit different. And on this demo The Diary For Memories play four songs in emo fashion, but without the usual whirlwind guitars and high pitched shrieking we are accustomed to. Instead The songs are more drawn out and build up and down in tempo a lot more. And most importantly, the shrieking is replaced by the main singer pretty much crying his way through all of the tracks.
Comparisons could be made with The Saddest Landscape, Her Breath On Glass and Tora Okada, maybe Zainichi to some extent too, and these bands would be proud of how over the top it gets. The lead vocalist literally sounds like they are going through emotional trauma, whilst another vocalist screams in the background and twinkly guitars and drums play. It’s kind of absurd to be honest and most people (quite possily this includes you) would just laugh or give me strange looks if I played it to them, but I don’t care and I think it’s fucking great.
All four songs sound similar and it’s all pretty harrowing stuff. Songs about break ups, ruined lives and hate. The lyrics don’t always make a lot of sense (something that I have found to be true across all the Malaysian records I own), but let’s be fair English is not their first language. And they still get their point across which is the main thing. Nice audio samples used most of the time, not sure about the lightning one though on the third track.
The demo comes on a CDr in a simple paper envelope with pictures of trees on with a lyric sheet included. In summary, if you like Malaysian screamo or over the top emo in general you should check these guys out.
1st June 2009