Time Fades Away

‘hell in Eden’ is like a dream. Captivating… stunning… unreal! And yet the mighty maestros of DIARY OF DREAMS have made it come true. ‘hell in Eden’ feels like coming home. Due to the distinct and doubtlessly one-of-a-kind DIARY sound, that's been accompanying us since their debut ‘Cholymelan’ in 1994, there's always this certain feeling of familiarity right from the first listening of a new DIARY piece.

Nils Lofgren has a story unlike any other in rock & roll. Something of a teenage rock & roll prodigy, he first made waves when he played on Neil Young's After the Gold Rush at the tender age of 17, just around the time his D.C.-based band Grin relocated to Los Angeles in hopes of hitting the big time. Grin never became stars, but Lofgren did. His association with Young provided a launch pad for a solo career that was acclaimed and fitfully commercially successful, with the late-'70s albums Cry Tough, I Came to Dance, and Night After Night all making waves in album rock…

Metalcore has had its share of fads over the years. From the emo singing choruses of the 2000s to the synth-infused electronicore of the 2010s, bands seem to be constantly searching for something new to fuse with the over-saturated genre. Los Angeles natives Phinehas have a different calling card: nonstop ferocious musicianship. While it's not the most unique approach to metalcore, this tactic has given the band a very consistent discography with plenty of variation kept between albums. The Fire Itself, while lacking the cohesion enjoyed by 2017's Dark Flag, leverages its sheer brutality to become one of the band's best albums to date…

Quigley Down Under interprets the modern Western score from a distinctly Australian perspective. Basil Poledouris' aw-shucks melodies and quirky arrangements employ French horn, banjo, and clarinet to create a vivid evocation of gunslinger life in the Outback. While Lonesome Dove remains Poledouris' definitive work in the Western arena, Quigley Down Under possesses no shortfall of charm or imagination; its playful approach bubbles with an energy quite uncommon to the genre, avoiding portent and ponderousness to communicate the joie de vivre of its characters and setting. Most impressive is Poledouris' stirring main theme, a bold, oddly funky reinvention of the classic Western fanfare that immediately serves notice that Quigley Down Under is a horse of a very different color.

Although he shared the same rockabilly roots as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison went on to pioneer an entirely different brand of country/pop-based rock & roll in the early '60s. What he lacked in charisma and photogenic looks, Orbison made up for in spades with his quavering operatic voice and melodramatic narratives of unrequited love and yearning. In the process, he established rock & roll archetypes of the underdog and the hopelessly romantic loser…