Unlocking the Past

by Stewart MasonReleased in concert with Jorn's other early-2007 album, The Gathering, Unlocking the Past refines and extended the concept of that album, which found the Norwegian power metal singer reinterpreting material from his own early solo albums. Unlocking the Past, however, is an album of classic rock covers. As a result, this has the feeling of a heck of a fan club release that is not likely to be of much interest beyond devoted Jorn fans. The songs themselves are fine, and indeed in some cases impressively obscure. But hard rock fans wanting to hear "Feel Like Makin' Love" want to hear Bad Company do it -- and similarly for fans of Thin Lizzy ("Cold Sweat"), Black Sabbath ("Lonely Is the Word/Letters from Earth"), Whitesnake ("Fool for Your Loving"), and the other acts saluted on this entirely adequate but fundamentally pointless covers project.