Frank Carter is a British singer and songwriter who cut his teeth in punk rock and has held on to that level of emotional intensity and personal expression while broadening his stylistic range. Making his debut in the hardcore outfit Gallows and shifting to a more melodic hard rock sound with Pure Love, Carter debuted his next project, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, in 2015 with the album Blossom, a throwback to the hardcore punch of Gallows. Carter and his bandmates began refining their sound with 2017's Modern Ruin, which coupled guitar-based rock with melodies that featured a dash of pop melodicism. This process continued with 2019's End of Suffering, and 2024's Dark Rainbow added keyboards and a more dynamic approach to the mix, though the defiant spirit of his previous work was still clearly audible. Born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England on April 27, 1984, Frank Carter grew up obsessed with music, skateboarding, and painting, and got a taste for punk rock early on, trying to vibe with the Clash records in his parents' music collection. While he enjoyed some of it, the creative youngster found the band a little too bright and cheery for his taste and began a long trek seeking out darker sounds in the punk vernacular. He started his first band when he was 16, All Night Drive, and for a time pursued a career as a tattoo artist, but he truly found the darkness he sought in his own music with the 2005 formation of Gallows, a punishing hardcore band for which Carter sang. He left Gallows in 2011 to form the more mainstream-friendly band Pure Love with U.S. musician Jim Carroll but abandoned that project in 2015 to form 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 punch 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, and 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 while adding a greater sense of melody. Several dates of a projected tour of the United States had to be canceled when Carter was injured in an auto accident, and scheduled international appearances were cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. But 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," while Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream joined in on the song "Original Sin." By the time Carter issued Dark Rainbow in 2024, the official lineup of the Rattlesnakes was just him and Dean Richardson, with Richardson also producing the sessions and both men adding keyboards. Gareth Grover and Tom "Tank" Barclay also appeared on the LP, which introduced a more accessible, pop-influenced approach, though there was enough rock guitar and vocal angst to provide a clear link to their musical past. ~ Fred Thomas & Mark Deming, Rovi