Making their name with full-bodied, hard-hitting punk rock reinforced with a hard rock undercurrent, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes were formed in 2015 by Carter.
Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes were formed in 2015 by Carter, former lead singer with the successful U.K. punk band Gallows.
Carter was a founding member of Gallows in 2005, but in 2011 he came to an impasse with the group over their musical direction. He left the band and debuted a new group, Pure Love, in 2012, whose sound was more indebted to mainstream rock and had a more positive lyrical stance.
Pure Love released a handful of singles and one album, 2013's Anthems, but in April 2014, Carter announced the digital release of the group's final recordings. In March 2015, Carter launched a new project, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, with Carter on lead vocals, Dean Richardson (formerly of Heights) on guitar, Thomas Mitchener (another alumnus of Gallows ) on bass, and Memby Jago (who'd previously worked with the Ghost of a Thousand) on drums.
With a sound that returned Carter to the forceful sound of Gallows , Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes made their recorded debut with the 2015 EP Rotten, and in August 2015 they dropped their first full-length album, Blossom. The band was soon touring regularly in the U.K. and Europe, and in 2016 they introduced a new lineup, with Mitchener and Jago replaced by a new rhythm section of drummer Gareth Grover (formerly of Gallows and Haunts ) and bassist Tom "Tank" Barclay.
Carter & the Rattlesnakes' second album, Modern Ruin, was released in January 2017 and saw a slight return to the more melodic alt-rock sound the frontman had explored with Pure Love, with positive results -- the album sold well, and the band was a major draw that year on the festival circuit. 2019's End of Suffering, which included the bruising single "Crowbar," continued in a similar vein.
With the tour for their previous album cut short by Covid-19, the band used the time throughout lockdown to write and produce their fourth record, 2021's Sticky, which featured a guest appearance from Idles' Joe Talbot on the lead track "My Town."