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Diamond - Don't Lose Your Cool EP

Diamond

Don’t Lose Your Cool EP

Sure, “The Feeling,” a frenetic dose of catchy-as-all-heck melodic rock, could have come straight off of Bleed American, but really, there are much worse crimes than writing a song that sounds exactly like Jimmy Eat World ca. 2001. Luckily, Diamond—featuring members of hardcore bands Trapped Under Ice and Down To Nothing—don’t get stuck a decade behind the times, delivering a high-energy EP that also measures up against the most recent material of their obvious influences (Jimmy Eat World, Rival Schools, Weezer). Put on a track like “Keep Dreamin’” at a dorm party and watch the mistaken identities fly. In fact, the seven songs on Don’t Lose Your Cool, although paying homage to a time when rock bands were either nerdy, sweater-wearing college rockers or hard-and-fast hardcore pit-ragers, sound less like a throwback to simpler times and more like steam-release from dudes who play fist-to-air hardcore as their day jobs, but just really enjoy the relief of harmonizing sing-along vocals and writing great melodic-rock riffs. This could have come out 10 years ago and ruled, but it came out now and it still rules. Especially if you like Jimmy Eat World.

Self-released http://www.wearedmnd.com

“The Feeling”