This album is widely seen as a landmark for the Post-Hardcore/Emo genre of the 90's, standing out at a time when the grunge scene was at it's largest, featuring deeply personal lyrics combined with sweet melodic verses and explosive choruses.
The album's opener "Seven" sees the band jump straight into the fray head first, dispelling any misconceptions people may have about them, the band knows what they're here to do, and they do it well, the album as a whole is quite progressive, most of the songs clock in around the five minute mark and feature non-standard structures.
The third track on the album "Song About An Angel" is arguably the most powerful track on the album, the lyrics deal with Dan Hoerner's coming to terms with his finding religion (Shortly after releasing this album, Dan became Christian) Lyrics such as: "Although you hit me hard I come back" suggest that he may have been trying to shun his religious urges, most people would probably see this as a song about a girl, unsurprisingly, considering the nature of most Emo songs, of course, there's nothing wrong with thinking that, after all, I am a genuine believer that once an artist releases his/her material into the public domain it is no longer their own, but that's a debate that could go on till Hell freezes over.
The next track "Round" starts quietly and builds in intensity until both Dan and Jeremy Enigk feel fit to burst singing: "The suffering said, we go round". In this track we get the Emo genre cliché of shouty harmonies from Jeremy & Dan, this is probably the weakest track on the album, maybe because it sounds too 'happy' compared with the rest of "Diary".
In "The Blankets Were The Stairs" SDRE take some inspiration from their grunge peers with a dirty, grinding opening riff, a driving bassline from Nate Mendel (Yes, the bass player in Foo Fighters) keeps the track on the ground, when suddenly the track takes a right turn and we get a nice taste of some acoustic guitar, only for it all to explode back into that same thrashy, grungy sound.
A standout track, "Pheurton Skeurto", sees the band trying a more chilled approach to their music, fading with piano as the lead instrument sounding like an old intermission track played at the cinemas between films the piano is accompanied only by Nate on bass, clocking in at only 2:33, it is a short tune in comparison to the rest of the album, probably because it was intended as filler, it's a nice little ditty nonetheless which builds to a crescendo then smoulders away.
One could mistake the opening of "Shadows" for a certain Coldplay tune, however, this similarity is shattered when the rest of the band join in, along with that, it's better than anything Coldplay could ever write. The song has a schizophrenic bridge section with wide leaps in dynamics the whole band playing one second, a few solemn notes the next.
"48" begins with a marching band style drumbeat and some clean guitar, once again, this is shattered by a trashy, grungy riff and Dan's shouted vocals proclaiming: "Where were you? We could have been the last time."
"Grendel" shows the band trying out different things, Dan's vocals are more ethereal than on the rest of the album and Jeremy decides to try out a more choppy style of guitar playing, bursting into a dissonant chorus with Dan's vocals echoing all over the place.
The albums closer "Sometimes" features a more gradual build up then the Loud/Quiet dynamics featured on the rest of the album, eventually building to a climax with Dan screaming: "Although my heart is bruised by your words. Sometimes... Sometimes..."
Altogether the album is very good, it's only down point is that all the songs sound the same, but you can't really blame that one on the band, after all they were pioneers in creating a new 'emo' sound with their only real waypoints being first generation 'emo' bands such as Cap'n Jazz, Fugazi and Rites of Spring.
Listen to: Song About An Angel, Seven, Sometimes. Then decide whether to buy the album, it's not for everyone, more for people who want a heart-wrenching listen.
8/10
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