Better Yet

As helpfully pointed out in the title, Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken sees Swedish metal institution Hammerfall hoisting aloft the torch of power metal (unbent, unbowed, etc.) for the fifth full-studio album of their career. But "power" metal may no longer the best tag with which to describe the band, whose material here ("Blood Bound," "Fury of the Wild," "Born to Rule," etc.) is really better described as classic, vintage, or better yet, timeless heavy metal, if you will…

Here is a second brace of solo Pass tracks from the sessions that have already yielded Songs for Ellen. The ambience is ruminative and extremely intimate; the menu consists entirely of much-explored standards at mostly unrelieved slow tempos. Several notes are not cleanly struck, but the musical imagination that previously yielded several solo recordings is still very much in gear, albeit a very subtle gear. A general bit of advice: it is better to listen to this album in small doses (a few tracks at a time), try to mentally filter out the very closely recorded mechanical noises the fingers make on the guitar, and not expect anything startling to leap out at you. Better yet, try some of Pass' earlier solo albums (such as the Virtuoso series, also on Pablo) before embarking upon this.

Yes, Olga Kern does appear in her photographs to be quite beautiful, glamorously, gorgeously, gloriously beautiful. Try not to hold that against her because, under all her appearance of beauty, Kern is actually a great musician and the proof is in her disc of transcriptions and variations by Rachmaninov. Kern's physical beauty is matched and surpassed by her tone, her technique, and, best of all, her interpretations. Her tone is clear, deep, rich, strong, and warm. Her technique is effortless, flawless, and just about beyond belief. And her interpretations are even better.

Ron Braunstein, better known under his stage-name Necro, is a Jewish-American rapper, producer, director record label owner from Brooklyn, New York. He is the owner of Psycho-Logical-Records founded November, 1999. He is the brother of fellow rapper Ill Bill.