Seeing as Neil Young canceled all his 2026 tour dates – he is expected at Farm Aid – As Time Explodes is the closest most fans will get to hearing the contemporary Young playing live with the Chrome Hearts.

Featuring 13 career-spanning songs culled from NYCH’s 2025 tour, ATE is an accurate representation. Young is reedier on the mic, his guitar playing a little less supple than in the past, but he’s still uniquely himself. And the Chrome Hearts – guitarist Micah Nelson, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo – are sympathetic musical collaborators and supportive on the vocal front, adding essential buoyancy to folksy numbers like “Daddy Went Walkin’” and angry arena anthems including “Ohio.” 

Though Nelson, McCormick and LoGerfo have previously worked with Young as NY + Promise of the Real, the Chrome Hearts are a new band with the addition of Oldham and the subtraction of Lukas Nelson. Songs from 2025, like the thrashing “Big Crime” and the countryish “Silver Eagle,” whose lyrics provide the LP title, suggest this band could develop into something special. 

Older numbers, including “Vampire Blues” and “Cortez the Killer,” confirm it – particularly the latter, on which the band gurgles through a lyrics clam on the part of Young to make something modern of the warhorse. 

Fans might not get more shows from this quintet. But they can be thankful tapes were rolling to capture what turned out to be As Time Explodes.