Winning has no shine in Brian Hunsaker’s “Final Score.” Brian Hunsaker’s fifth and final single before Where Dreamers Fall uses speed metal and power metal to face war’s aftershock. He frames conflict as a mental trap. The end keeps coming into view, yet no outcome feels clean. It suits listeners who want intense metal with a dramatic premise. It avoids a simple tale of triumph. The path...

The new single from Quentin Moore, “Kiss Your Lips,” doesn’t so much start as it seeps into the room, lowering the lights and raising the temperature by a degree or two. Moore is at the piano, his vocals draping over the notes with the patient weight of heavy silk. The entire thing feels excavated from some lost '70s studio session, a slow jam built...