Singles Roundup: Sweet & Lynch, Jax Hollow, Powerwolf, & Metallica

Let's see what the jukebox has in store for us this time.

Sweet & Lynch - You'll Never Be Alone

I've never been fond of Michael Sweet as a singer, and this song is a perfect example of why. This is a song about being there for the person you love, which ostensibly makes it a supportive love song. He comes out of the gates singing at full volume, belting in a way that doesn't carry much emotion besides volume. It's an approach with no nuance, which translates to the lyric. He sings, "I want to be your rock, an anchor you can't move." I know what he means, but taken literally, the words he uses are saying he wants to tie her down and never let her grow and move in new directions. Being someone's anchor is not a metaphor you should want to take on voluntarily, and it turns this song into a comedy of errors.

Jax Hollow - Wallflower Girl In Bloom

This song is a delightful twist of expectations. Rather than more soulful blues, this is a peppy acoustic number wherein Jax is awed and amazed by the wallflower girl when she steps out of the shadows and into the light. There's some slick acoustic guitar playing that can slide past without realizing how precise Jax needed to be to pull it off, and her vocal tone embodies the sense of wonder. From these two singles, it seems Jax is growing into her own as a writer and performer, and the best sounds like it's yet to come.

Powerwolf - No Prayer By Midnight

Bands like Powerwolf find themselves in a tough spot, because everything they do sounds like everything they've done. Powerwolf knows their sound, and they write songs to fit it. That's a great thing, because they never disappoint. It's also a bad thing, because they never invite the possibility of disappointment. This song is a typical Powerwolf single, with the same quick vocal delivery that has hooked us for many an album cycle. They do what they do so well. I just wish they would switch things up with something slower and more dramatic a bit more often.

Metallica - If Darkness Had A Son

Three for three, Metallica continues to underwhelm. As the songs they have previewed get longer, my patience gets shorter. There are a couple of good ideas in here, but the song stretches so long they get ridden into the ground. The repetition of the song's main idea is a death sentence, which can't be rescued by the rather dull chorus, and is given last rites by Kirk Hammet's flailing wah-pedal solo. We know from their own documentaries they write songs by collecting riffs and stitching the ones in the same key together. That has never sounded like a worse way of working than leading up to this new record. I don't know if I could sit through more than an hour of this at one time.