(Dance) rock and ballads that put a point behind punk.
While former Gallows singer Frank Carter and creative partner/multi-instrumentalist Dean Richardson once again vented their lockdown frustrations on STICKY (2021) with bubbling energy and an irrepressible will to party, their fifth album is a retro and at times introspective affair. Once again produced by Richardson, the leading duo visited various, previously unfinished song locations from their past and have now finally staged them.
Continuing to resist a single genre term, the expression ranges from alternative rock, eighties and Brit pop to seventies glam rock. Not entirely dissimilar to a band like the Queens Of The Stone Age, on DARK RAINBOW Carter & The Rattlesnakes know how to mix together a wide variety of influences, but in the end they always end up with something that is suitable for both the dance floor and a more sedate, Adult rock radio for melody and songwriting listeners alike is recommended. The fact that Mr. Carter, who has been trained as a singing teacher, also croons more and sometimes intones in a pleading, fragile way – and almost stylizes himself like a Holly Johnson with a hardcore past – makes the whole thing all the more successful.