On his expansive new single “Pieces,” Vancouver Island songwriter WiL confronts the quiet clutter of a fractured life and turns the debris into gold. Anchored by his deep, velvety vocals and fiercely idiosyncratic guitar work, the track begins in a state of brooding contemplation, moving with the cautious gravity of someone testing thin ice after a hard winter. https://open.spotify.com/track/1Ad1WMvlke4vTKEkSO8AfE?si=4fd67168e9a94a63 What begins as an insular alt-folk meditation...

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...