Amani Burnham has a background and approach to music that manages to put a fresh, unique spin on combining traditional blues connection with a highly-charged electric presentation.

Blind Pig Records has a strong belief in his future as he’s among the featured artists in a very strong roster. In an accompanying press release to his debut album, Roots And Wings they offer: “It’s fitting that Amani’s first album opens with a song called “Fastlane,” as his career has been pedal to the metal.” And they proudly boast: “It was surreal to see a 19-year-old on Instagram wielding a white Fender Stratocaster with such dexterous ferocity and sensual charisma.”

Burnham deftly represents the ‘next generation’ artist, making full use of social media by “gaining massive online popularity through his signature thumb-driven guitar style.” And added to this are his strong and welcoming vocals.

Born in Ethiopia but raised in Connecticut to adoptive parents, the 20-year-old has developed a style steeped in traditional blues handed down by the icons, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon but transformed into a fun and sparkling new articulation of blues-rock.

He says he was influenced from all corners of the guitar world, including icons Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robin Trower and Buddy Guy. But there’s little doubt it was Hendrix who left the strongest impression in both guitar and voice.

Adept at both lead and rhythm, Roots And Wings features several blistering guitar solos. And maybe it was his beginnings as a drummer that account for the sometimes backline-dominating drums in the final mix.

As promised by the release, Burnham catches your attention right out of the gate with an excited guitar-drum-driven instrumental, entitled, “Fastlane.” It’s brimming with the influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“I Wanna Know” is more deliberate with a slower paced bluesy rhythm before delivering some more electric guitar bridges.

The title track, “Roots & Wings,” conjures immediate images of Hendrix, even employing the classic ‘Kiss the Sky’ phrase. Burnham is not shy about putting his guitar skills out front and centre. Driving, sometimes overbearing, drums keep a strict backbeat throughout. The song is personal as Burnham shared, “I don’t know who my birth parents are, and that plays a big part in my life.”

In fact, Burnham has stated, “The Last Thing I Remember,” “I Wanna Know,” and “Roots & Wings” are all highly personal themes of identity and belonging, reflecting his experience as an adoptee.

Next up is “The Last Thing I Remember.” It paints a clear picture of a nightmarish encounter. Guitar pyrotechnics overlay another drum-heavy rhythm.

“Bluejay” is an upbeat barn-burner with a catchy bridge and literal expression of the freedom of a bird released from a cage.

Weighty tom-toms open “You Can’t Heal What You Hide” before it settles into an upbeat shuffle. Lyrics offer hope for anyone in need of a helping hand.

“Sideways Thru Time” is a clever narrative set to an infectious rhythm. It gives way to “Waiting By The Window.” It’s a straight-ahead rock and roll song with a classic feel.

A tale of lovers governed by destiny, “Lovers Till They Die,” is wrapped in an upbeat rollicking rhythm, once again punctuated by Burnham’s guitar highlights.

It isn’t until “Midnight Waterfall” that things slow down with a more melodic, thoughtful time of reflection for the performer that manages to carry the listener along.

The tempo resumes with “Some Sorta Love.” Here Burnham cleverly intertwines the story contained in the lyrics with musical metaphors.

The final track is a longer piece, opening with some fine slow blues. Adding some space between the notes gives the listener a little more time to appreciate the nuances of Burnham’s guitar prowess. Written by Elmore James and Marshall Sehorn, it represents the only piece not penned by Burnham and Jeff Schroedl, who also doubled as producer.

The band is backed by drummer Ray Hangen and bassist Matt Raymond.

Roots and Wings is a fitting album title for a young man expressing his connection to the roots of blues through an album marking the flight launch of his young career. There promises to be a thrill ride ahead as younger audiences are bound to be swept along by this charismatic, blues-rock alchemist.

The Review: 8.5/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– I Wanna Know
– Fastlane
– The Last Thing I Remember
– Midnight Waterfall
– Roots & Wings

The Big Hit

– Roots & Wings

The post Amani Burnham: Roots & Wings Review appeared first on Blues Rock Review.

The cult singer and guitarist whose fingerprints are all over British music

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Suzi Quatro shot Alice Cooper, sang with Donovan, starred on Happy Days and toured with Noddy Holder and Phil Lynott: These are just a few of her stories

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“Division is the mission.”

screensaver’s latest single, Division, is a synthpunk extravaganza wired for our collective calamity: a blast of motorik momentum that turns tribal panic, poisoned politics, and the ache for connection into something tense enough to dance to and ugly enough to believe. The Melbourne five-piece locks into a Krautrock push and lets the rest of the machinery misbehave: forceful synths, bass like a civic alarm, drums with no patience for your precious little feelings, and guitars that slash across the track with the clean nastiness of broken glass under fluorescent light.

Krystal Maynard recites the lyrics like the latest dispatch from a culture choking on its own splintered team allegiances. The song’s refrain “Division is the mission” cuts deep, because it names division as design rather than accident: a strategy of fracture, distraction, and control hiding in plain sight. Around that line, screensaver builds a song about geopolitical fracture, attention rot, misinformation, environmental collapse, and the cheap tribal costume people wear when they have run out of better ideas.

The band’s own explanation puts the song’s panic in plain terms:

“Thematically, the lyrics hone in on the geopolitical state of the world. As the focus shifts perpetually and our attention is pulled in multiple directions, we’re left a fractured mess. We’re left divided by the distractions, crushed under the weight of a constant downpour of misinformation. The divide widens as we share the same space, the same air, the same earth. The very earth that we’re destroying in parallel as we fight against each other. Division is the mission and the powers that be are succeeding.”

That is the horrorify gag, really. Everybody is trapped in the same room, while half of them are busy setting fire to the curtains and the other half are calling it discourse.

The song’s sound has the clipped, bug-eyed intelligence of Devo, the political bite of The Clash, the sleek unease of Heaven 17, and the wired melodic twitch of XTC, though screensaver never sinks into costume-party pastiche. Christopher Stephenson, James Beck, Dorian Vary, Jonnine Nokes, and Maynard know how to make that synth-driven tension move. Julian Cue’s recording and mix keep every instrument close enough to bruise, while Casey Rice’s mastering gives the track a bright, hard finish, like metal warmed by catastrophe.

The video, conceptualized by Maynard and directed and shot by James Beck, throws the song into a sick little cinema of social breakdown, examining “our allegiances, tribalism and the dichotomy of the individual vs the collective,” along with “the existential dread that haunts us all.” Its neo-noir dystopian grime and Romero-Fulci body-cluster chaos makes perfect sense beside the track’s thesis: groups form, groups splinter, and people drift between disconnection and disengagement while still yearning for contact. You might also spot a few familiar faces from the local Melbourne music scene among the pack. The zombies here are citizens, consumers, believers, skeptics, doomscrollers, neighbours. Nobody needs to eat flesh when they can chew through reality instead.

“They’re not flesh eaters,” the band adds. “They are humans hungry for connection.”

Watch the video for “Division” below:

Released digitally through Poison City Records, Division is screensaver’s first new music since Three Lens Approach. It comes on like a public-service announcement from the end of the escalator. Tight, smart, agitated, and mean in all the right places, it positions screensaver as one of the sharper bands dragging post-punk discipline into synth-driven disorder.

Listen to Division below and order the single here.

screensaver UK Tour Dates:

• 26 May — Sheffield, UK — Delicious Clam
• 27 May — Bristol, UK — The Croft
• 28 May — London, UK — The Shacklewell Arms
• 29 May — Manchester, UK — Big Hands
• 30 May — Brighton, UK — The Green Door Store

Follow screensaver:

• Bandcamp
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Spotify
• Facebook

Follow Poison City Records:

• Bandcamp
• Store

The post Melbourne Post-Punk Outfit screensaver Turns Tribal Panic Into Zombie Dread in Video for “Division” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Nu-metal revivalists Blackgold have officially announced a major UK headline tour for this coming autumn. Running through October and November 2026, the trek is set to bring their energetic live performance to some of the most heavily requested alternative locations across the country. The upcoming run follows a highly successful cycle behind their 2025 release, … Continue reading Blackgold announce autumn 2026 UK headline tour

Cornelius, the eclectic Japanese musician/producer/composer born Keigo Oyamada, has a new album on the way. Refractions features Shintaro Sakamoto, Arto Lindsay, Bid from the Monochrome Set, and — on today’s new single “Aeons,” Sean Ono Lennon, whose father John participated in Hands Across America 40 years ago yesterday. The track is centered on a tight…

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There are interviews that begin with a bang… and then there are interviews that begin with the entire street losing power two minutes before you hit record. Sitting in near-total darkness with only the glow of the phone light and a rapidly dying laptop for company felt strangely fitting for a conversation with Rat Scabies — the legendary heartbeat of The Damned. After all, chaos has always followed The Damned like a shadow.

As the backup power held and the laughter started flowing, Rat reflected on an astonishing fifty years of one of the most influential and unpredictable bands in rock history. From detonating the UK punk scene with New Rose and Damned Damned Damned to becoming pioneers of goth, punk and alternative rock, The Damned remain a band utterly untouched by convention — still theatrical, still dangerous, still gloriously alive.

We talk about the upcoming Australian tour, the madness and longevity of the band, surviving half a century of punk rock excess, Wembley memories, and why The Damned still sound as urgent now as they did in 1976.

Through it all, Rat remains exactly what you’d hope for: sharp, funny, anarchic and completely uncompromising. And if this really is The Final Damnation, they’re making sure they go out louder than anyone else. THE DAMNED – THE FINAL DAMNATION 50th ANNIVERSARY TOUR Iconic British punk pioneers, The Damned will bring their legendary live show to Australia and New Zealand as part of their 50th anniversary farewell celebrations.

Formed in 1976, the trailblazing group released the UK’s first ever punk single New Rose and its first album Damned Damned Damned which ignited the global punk revolution. They are, indisputably one of the most enduring and influential bands in punk, goth and alternative rock. With their dark lyrics and Dave Vanian’s rich baritone vocals, The Damned have spent five decades pushing musical boundaries. From raw, anarchic punk anthems on their groundbreaking debut to gothic rock explorations and psychedelic influences, the band has remained a vital force in rock music.

Their songs defy time and sound as vital as the day they were released. “Half a century on and who’d have thought we would still be upright and breathing? We never thought we’d make it this far and neither did you! But here we are. a finely tuned engine. The Damned still has the power and finesse to excite, entertain and accelerate into our 50th year…” – Rat Scabies

“With 50 years of catalogue to choose from, only the best songs from our chequered history will be performed – and with the passion and commitment all good music lovers deserve. You know we won’t disappoint…” – Captain Sensible

The 50th anniversary shows will be a career defining celebration, drawing from their extensive catalogue that includes classics like New Rose, Neat Neat Neat, Love Song, Smash It Up, Eloise and so much more with an epic 25 song set list delivered at the first of these shows at a sold our Wembley Arena in London on April 11. This special Australian tour built around a landmark show at The Sydney Opera House marks a major milestone for the band, which continues to deliver chaotic, theatrical, and unforgettable performances. The most definitive show of their career

THE DAMNED AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND
SEPTEMBER 2026 TOUR DATES

Tuesday 8th September AUCKLAND, Powerstation

Thursday 10th September SYDNEY, The Opera House

Friday 11th September BRISBANE, The Tivoli

Sunday 13th September MELBOURNE, The Forum

Tickets from: thephoenix.au/the-damned-2026

The post INTERVIEW: RAT SCABIES of THE DAMNED talks to Mark about 50 years of the band, Australia and Jazz… appeared first on The Rockpit.

Fires In The Distance have quietly become one of the most emotionally resonant bands in modern melodic death metal, and what makes their rise so compelling is how unforced it has all felt. The Connecticut group built their reputation through atmosphere rather than flash and pageantry. Their 2020 debut Echoes From Deep November introduced a … Continue reading Album Review: Fires In The Distance – Circadian Promise