Category: news

German heavy/power metal ensemble Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame have finished the work on their next studio record and shared first details. It’s going to be entitled Man Or God and released in fall, 2026 through Fastball Music. Additional info coming soon.
Read more…

Swedish progressive death metal band Februus is streaming a new track, “Measures Of Escalation”, as part of their next full-length instalment Construction Of Conflict.
Read more…

The foundational goal of Under The Fretboard is to share hidden-gem artists within the blues-rock genre who have limited exposure outside their regional circles. However, we also want to acknowledge genre-blending and crossover artists who possess noteworthy creative works with blues-rock lineage. Genre identities are becoming increasingly difficult to define in an era of electronic and computer-generated sounds, with the lines growing even more blurred by the presence of AI-generated music.

In this era where genre lines continue to blur, Jackie Venson has built a career by refusing to recognize those borders in the first place. Blues, soul, funk, indie rock, synth-pop, psychedelic textures, and improvisational guitar mastery all collide within her music, yet somehow the result feels cohesive rather than chaotic. What emerges is signature Jackie Venson.

Jackie Venson – Futuristic Blues Filtered Through Austin Neon and Late-Night Soul

For many artists, the guitar becomes a lifelong companion early in childhood. Venson’s story took a different route. Born in Austin, Texas, to a father who was a professional musician and an encouraging mother, her childhood centered around classical piano. She eventually picked up the guitar just one year before graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2011.

When Venson returned home to Austin, she began constructing her musical persona, trading keys for six strings and gradually developing into one of the city’s most compelling musical attractions. Forbes took notice, stating, “Jackie Venson is truly an Austin legend in the making,” and so did Rolling Stone, which called her one of “Austin’s rising stars.”

Her playing carried the emotional intensity of the blues, but her sound drifted comfortably into pop beats, atmospheric production, and contemporary R&B. Influences from Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Albert King sit alongside echoes of Prince, Alicia Keys, and Sade. The result is a catalog that can shift from blistering blues-rock solos to funky reggae rap to dreamlike electronic textures.

Just two years into playing guitar, she put together her first studio project, the six-track EP Rollin On, in 2013, “just so I could have something to sell at my shows.” From there, Venson’s profile quickly began to rise. The next year, she opened for country artists Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, and James Taylor.

Later in 2014, her first full-length studio release, The Light In Me, was a self-released effort that fueled her ascension. It was described as “a soul/pop/R&B album of wide-ranging influences but with a strong blues element.” She followed it with a pair of live releases in 2016, the EP Jackie Venson Live and the performance piece Live at Strange Brew, before returning to the studio for 2017’s EP Transcends and 2019’s Joy.

This established a pattern of mixing live releases between studio projects as she built a prolific catalog of albums. Joy marked her first widely acclaimed work, with the reggae-pop-leaning “Keep On” amassing more than three million streams on Spotify. Other popular tracks include the blues-rocker “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Witchcraft,” which is reminiscent of 1980s rock. Many of the tracks on Joy are refined versions of material from her earlier work.

Venson is always experimenting with and redefining her previous material, as demonstrated by 2023’s Evolution of Joy, a complete reimagining of the album. That same year, she won Best Guitarist at the Austin Music Awards, becoming the first Black woman to receive the honor.

Then came 2020. New music production slowed to a drip, and live shows dried up altogether. Venson released Vintage Machine, which further evolved the Jackie Venson sound. The album leaned into streamlined production, funk rhythms, and retro-futuristic effects while remaining grounded in expressive guitar work.

She describes it as a rock album with its own individual flavor aligned with that of Prince: “It’s mostly pop rock, with a heavier lean on rock, but it’s also electronic, so it’s not classic rock. It’s like Prince rock, but it’s his very individual, specific flavor. And that’s how I feel about Vintage Machine: it’s rock, but my version.”

Probably the best example of her “Prince rock” approach is the track “Make Me Feel.” The record earned Album of the Year honors at the 2021 Austin Music Awards and reinforced what many in Texas already knew: Venson was no longer merely an emerging talent. She was becoming one of Austin’s defining contemporary artists.

Jackie wasn’t going to let a global pandemic slow her momentum. She shifted her touring energy into livestreaming and ranked tenth on Pollstar’s Top 100 Livestreamers chart for 2020, with streams totaling more than 2.8 million viewers. She also released a pair of live albums, Live in Texas and Jackie Venson Live at Austin City Limits, while adding a couple of remix releases under her techno pseudonym, Jackie The Robot, bringing her total to a remarkable five releases during the pandemic year of 2020.

Those efforts earned her Best Livestreaming Artist and Musician of the Year honors, in addition to the Album of the Year award for Vintage Machine at the 2021 Austin Music Awards.

The album most likely to appeal to traditional blues fans is 2021’s Love Transcends. The project focuses on Texas blues without the soul, pop, and techno textures found elsewhere in her catalog. This is the Jackie Venson who earned invitations to Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruise, Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival tour, and, most recently, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival.

The album consistently delivers quality tracks, with “Rollin On,” “Always Free,” and “Til This Pain Goes Away” among its top streamers. “See What You Want,” “Cover My Eyes,” and the title track are also worthy listens for blues-rock enthusiasts.

Live releases Joy Alive and the EP Jackie Venson on Audiotree Live were also released that year, with Love Transcends: Live in Austin following in 2022. In 2023, the aforementioned Evolution of Joy revisited and reimagined material from Joy, almost treating her own catalog as living material open to reinterpretation.

Alongside it came Ghost in the Machine, an adventurous project fusing electronic effects, funk grooves, and jazz-inflected experimentation, with a reimagined version of “Make Me Feel” serving as the standout track.

True to form, Venson followed up in 2024 with another live album, Ghost Live, before returning to the studio for 2025’s The Love Anthology. Upon the album’s release, she posted, “This album showcases the soul and R&B side of my musical personality, influenced by acts like Alicia Keys and Sade.”

The album features a number of instrumental interludes and carries a smooth-jazz feel in addition to the elements she mentioned in her post. By now, the pattern is unmistakable: every Jackie Venson release feels like a snapshot rather than a destination.

In March and April of this year, she released another live album, Live at Fitzgerald’s Historic, in two segments totaling 31 tracks. Venson’s considerable library of live albums is all worth hearing, as she does not hesitate to tinker with her material, constantly evolving her own sound.

Her live performances remain the cornerstone of the experience. Whether delivering explosive guitar solos or intimate vocal moments, Venson brings a sense of emotional immediacy that recordings only partially capture.

While some of Jackie’s work may not be for the blues-rock traditionalist, she takes a fascinating approach to making music. As she said in a 2021 interview, “I’m trying to get people to stop paying attention to genres. They don’t matter, just listen to the artist. ‘What does this music sound like? Oh, it’s R&B…’ That’s like saying this meal has salt in it. I’m trying to get people to take genres with a grain of salt. Just listen for yourself. Stop trying to put words on things that can’t be defined.”

That may ultimately be Jackie Venson’s greatest contribution to modern blues-rock. She honors tradition without becoming trapped inside it. In her hands, genres are not museum pieces. They are vibrant, shape-shifting, and transformative baselines for creativity.

The post Under The Fretboard: Jackie Venson appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

I can’t believe the only time we featured Extize was for their support slot with Combichrist last year. The German-based club/techno act are crossing genres all the time and were hugely entertaining on stage at Slay. They’ve done some good covers in the past as well as songs influenced and based on classic films like A … Continue reading Classic Cover: Extize – “I Don’t Wanna Be Me” (original by Type O Negative)

Rainbow Riding‘s The spaces inbetween is a thoughtful and introspective alt rock meditation on the quiet moments that often carry the greatest meaning. Exploring the unseen layers beneath everyday interactions, the track invites listeners to look beyond the obvious and embrace the subtle emotions hidden within silence, distance, and reflection. Gentle yet emotionally resonant, its atmospheric soundscape and heartfelt songwriting create a dreamlike sense of contemplation, blurring the line between observation and self-discovery. Poignant and quietly profound, The Spaces Inbetween finds beauty in life’s overlooked moments and reminds us that meaning often resides in what remains unsaid.

Connect:

Facebook

Greek metal formation Drama Noir shared news that after one year in service guitarist Kostas Skrompolas has been replaced with Greg Vartholomeos aka George Julius.
Read more…

Ben Demase‘s Smoking Gun is a compelling indie rock offering that balances raw emotional intensity with memorable songwriting. Driven by expressive vocals, dynamic instrumentation, and a sense of simmering tension, the track unfolds with confidence, gradually revealing its emotional weight through powerful melodies and sharp lyrical delivery. There’s an authenticity at its core that makes every moment feel earned, while the polished production allows the song’s energy to hit with maximum impact. Both reflective and urgent, Smoking Gun showcases Ben Demase’s ability to craft music that resonates long after the final note fades.

Connect:

Instagram

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MENTAL ANGUISH Unleashes Brutal Grindcore Assault From the Buffalo and Niagara Underground
New Release Out Now via CDN Records
Purchase and stream: https://cdnrecords.com/shop/mental-anguish/
Emerging from the gritty borderlands of Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York, Mental Anguish arrives with a no-frills, full-force grindcore attack forged from decades of underground experience and a deep refusal to dial anything down.
While the name is new to the modern extreme metal landscape, the people behind it are anything but. The members have carved their reputations in the trenches of Western New York’s underground, cutting their teeth in bands like Immortal Terror, Grotesque Infection, Eternal Torment, Arsenic Disposal, and Anthropic. All that history gets funneled straight into something faster, heavier, and more merciless.
Mental Anguish operates with a simple lineup and a simple mission: destroy everything in their path.
Chris Hull delivers guttural, barked vocals that hit like a warning siren in a collapsing factory. Carl Pace carves out razor-edged guitar riffs with surgical precision. Russ Martin holds down the low end with thick, crushing bass lines. Jim Santillo turns the kit into a war zone, hammering out relentless blast beats and chaotic rhythms with zero restraint.
This is grindcore in its purest form. Fast. Ugly. Efficient. No wasted motion.
The band introduced themselves with their debut release, Demo ’24 , recorded at Watchmen Studios. Across five tracks, including “Construct of Fear,” “Perilous Grasp,” and “Whore of Babylon,” Mental Anguish laid down a statement of intent: songs that rarely stretch past two minutes but hit like they could level a city block. It is raw, unfiltered extremity captured exactly as it should be, loud, abrasive, and unapologetic.
What sets Mental Anguish apart is not just speed or heaviness, but the weight of where they come from. The Niagara and Buffalo underground has long been a breeding ground for DIY extremity, and this band carries that tradition forward without compromise. No trends. No polish. No dilution.
Just impact.
Now officially released through CDN Records, Demo ’24 is making noise throughout the underground grindcore community and beyond. Mental Anguish is poised to push deeper into the modern extreme metal landscape while staying firmly rooted in the chaos that built them. Whether in cramped basement venues or spreading through underground networks worldwide, this is a band built to overwhelm.
Western New York grind is alive, loud, and not asking permission.
And Mental Anguish is leading the charge.
OUT NOW ON CDN RECORDS
Watch the video and experience the devastation for yourself.
For fans of uncompromising, old-school grindcore delivered with modern intensity, Mental Anguish is mandatory listening.

  Follow the band at these links:
https://mentalanguish1.bandcamp.com/album/demo-24
https://cdnrecords.com/label-artists/mental-anguish/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560670433904
https://www.instagram.com/mental_anguish_grindcore/
Contact: jimmyt1110@gmail.com

The Swedes Raised Fist have confirmed a string of headline shows in Europe, scheduled to be executed (mainly) in October.
Read more…

Mind Melting Metal Project Led By Ira Black (Vio-Lence, Lizzy Borden, Metal Church) Unveils First Glimpse Of Upcoming Full-Length Album

Created and fronted by veteran guitarist Ira Black (Vio-Lence, Metal Church, I Am Morbid, Lizzy Borden, Westfield Massacre), APOCÆLYPSE represents a bold new chapter in his career. Stepping beyond his celebrated role as a guitarist, Black takes center stage as vocalist, songwriter, and creative architect, delivering a sound that merges crushing modern metal with cinematic atmosphere and thought-provoking themes.

“INTELL-I-GENTS” serves as the band’s introduction and a statement of intent. Driven by towering riffs, industrial textures, and anthemic melodies, the song explores the growing influence of artificial intelligence, digital surveillance, and society’s increasingly complex relationship with technology. Equal parts cautionary tale and futuristic metal anthem, the track offers a glimpse into the conceptual depth that defines APOCÆLYPSE’s vision.

Commenting on the incendiary new song, Black states: 

“Intell-I-Gents’ is my transmission from the edge of a world quietly handing its pulse to machines, where convenience becomes consent and intelligence starts writing the rules we live by. I fused Industrial/Metal weight with Electronic pulse to mirror that tension: a human heartbeat colliding with an algorithm that never sleeps. This song isn’t a warning from the future, it’s a mirror held to right now, asking who’s really in control as we cross the line.” 

The accompanying music video, directed by Vicente Cordero of Industrialism Films and co-directed by Black, brings the song’s themes to life through a striking visual narrative that reflects the tension between humanity and the rapidly evolving digital world.

Stream “INTELL-I-GENTS“: 

https://vyd.co/Intell-i-gents

“INTELL-I-GENTS” MUSIC VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmuct_tKPgg

APOCÆLYPSE features a powerhouse lineup led by Ira Black alongside his son, guitarist Ira Black IV, whose classical training and technical prowess bring a unique dynamic to the band’s sound. Rounding out the lineup are bassist Matt Snell (formerly of Five Finger Death Punch) and drummer Lonny Pasillas (formerly of Deadsett and Kill Devil Hill). Together, the group blends decades of experience with a forward-thinking approach, crafting modern metal that is both crushingly heavy and ambitiously expansive. 

Further elevating the band’s debut is acclaimed producer and mixer Kane Churko, whose work on “INTELL-I-GENTS” delivers the track’s massive sonic impact. Renowned for collaborations with Ozzy Osbourne, Five Finger Death Punch and Disturbed, Churko helps shape a sound that balances crushing heaviness with contemporary clarity and precision.

The song was then mastered by Maor Appelbaum (Rob Halford, Testament, Sabaton), whose expert touch brings additional depth, power, and polish to the final mix, ensuring “INTELL-I-GENTS” hits with maximum impact.

“INTELL-I-GENTS” is the first of several singles scheduled for release throughout the summer as APOCÆLYPSE prepares to unveil their forthcoming debut album. The ten-song record is expected to arrive across digital platforms later this year, with additional music videos, live appearances, and touring plans to be announced in the coming months.

With its combination of modern metal power, cinematic ambition, and fearless subject matter, APOCÆLYPSE emerges as a new force ready to challenge expectations and confront the future head-on.

Follow APOCÆLYPSE: 
Instagram | Facebook