🎵 Vinyl & Vanity Collab: Diary of Dreams- Hell in Eden🎵
Comin at you with the final #vinylandvanity post for 2023: Hell in Eden by Diary of Dreams. This one is a good three months overdue. We've both been so busy with prelaunch tasks with The Chimera Snare that time slipped by faster than we realized.
Diary of Dreams is a band near and dear to my heart. I've been listening to the band for over 20 years, and the amount of inspiration and strength lent is seemingly endless. And speaking of The Chimera Snare, they are one of the bands our series is dedicated in part to.
I first discovered Diary of Dreams on one of my excursions to Rasputin Music in Campbell- my favorite solo, after-school activity. I like to discover new music physically, perusing the aisles and looking at the album covers in my genre of taste. If the vibe captures my attention and I'm diggin' the energy I feel while reading the deets, I buy it. Quite honestly, this has been how I've found so many great artists that I still listen to today. I picked up a copy of Nachtschwärmer 5 and discovered Diary of Dreams' song Traumtänzer, which I instantly fell in love with. Also, Google Translate wasn't a thing at the time, so one of my friends from Belkin helped me translate it when I was working at CompUSA in SF.
Fast forward to May 2019. I discovered that Diary of Dreams would be playing in LA on Saturday, 5/11, the day before the show. We so many things lined up, including a had a Mother's Day date with my husband's mom on Sunday, prepending a 3 am Monday departure for a road trip for Eternal Warfare in Oregon. I legit cried because the timing was so bad. But! Tickets were still available, and with LA being a 6ish-hour drive, it wasn't impossible. My husband made it happen. They played a phenomenal set, showcasing songs from Hell in Eden and kickin' it old school with Amok, The Wedding, and, of course, The Curse.
Adrian actually came out into the crowd to perform the better half of The Curse. My hubs and I were fortunate enough to be in his range to hug him as he made his rounds. I want to say a few things about what I heard around me following that song. There were a couple of ladies saying that they managed to grab up on him like it was OK. Um, it's not OK to do that to anyone and curse them for those actions because it's shit like that which ruins so many things. Speaking for myself, I'm not sure I'd want to back out singing into a crowd if I was just gonna get groped. I think that's probably one of the reasons he didn't stick around after the show to talk with some fans like I was hoping he would. Anyway, I digress. I'm just sad I know that happened.
Fast forward to 2020, my husband surprised me with signed copies of Hell in Eden and Freak Perfume for my birthday, bringing happy tears to my eyes yet again.
I hope it won't be long before they tour the US again. I'm hearing it's getting harder and harder for bands to do because of so many restrictions and the sheer cost of it all. A girl can dream, though, can't she?
Fun Fact: In my 20s, my phone's home and lock screen was Adrian from the photoshoot of DoD's The Wedding, from the album (if). I used to joke with my coworkers and tell them he was my boyfriend, lol. Of course, they never believed me, to which I lovingly confessed my fib. This is the pic:
