Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - Blossom | Review

With two albums being released since then, we’re going back in time to take a look at whether Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes' 2015 album, ‘Blossom’, has withstood the withering of time?

(DISCLAIMER: This review has both a 'Good Review' part and a 'Bad Review' part due to it being a uni assignment - practising writing good and bad reviews. I actually love this album which you will probably be able to tell.)

Good

With only a few months to go until the 5 year anniversary of their fame-defining album, it was about time to check back in with ‘Blossom’ and see if it’s still ridden with alt-rock gems. At 34 minutes long, the album was Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ first studio album followed their three-track EP ‘Rotten’. The album peaked at #18 on the UK Albums Chart, a great success after Carter’s two failed bands: Gallows and Pure Love. Although Gallows did in fact reach some level of success, the band was dropped by the Warner Bros. music label following their particularly harsh and brutal second album. Now, 9 years and millions of British pounds later, Frank Carter has released 3 studio albums with his new band Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes.

‘Blossom’ gracefully handles the different variations of sadness and gloom, Frank Carter described the album in an interview with Upset Magazine, as being “about sadness and not knowing what to do with it”. In a way, ‘Blossom’ tells a story of the stages of sadness, with some songs being mostly about anger, others of anxiety, and others of complete despair.

Take ‘Trouble’ for example, the song is completely flooded with hidden meanings and deeper contexts. Carter says in the song: “Here I sit in these shackles and chains/While all the men in balaclavas give my country away/I know, I know, I know I ain't walking away.” It almost sounds like he is speaking on behalf of his mind, watching it’s own vision being plagued with the sadness. It’s such a powerful, angry song about being helpless as everything is being taken away from you.

‘Devil Inside Me’ is yet another incredible song that ticks all the boxes for an alt-rock classic while still covering the important topic of the album. It’s very progressive in that there is a clear narrative to the song - a beginning, middle, and end. Anyone, regardless of their taste in music, can take a bite out of this song and still enjoy it. This is mostly due to the lyrical content, one line being : “There's a devil inside me/A monolith of doom/And there's on inside of you/A terrible terrorist.” It’s a robust statement that anyone being haunted by a psychological issue such as depression, anger issues, or anxiety can relate to and take comfort in that someone else is being tormented.

The lines: “you were brave until the very end/you made us all so proud”, and “I can feel you fading/and it’s ruining my soul/just stay with me/I don’t want to be alone”, truly captures all the pain of losing someone/yourself.

The single most transcendent song on the album is unquestionably ‘Beautiful Death’. It’s overwhelming raw in both lyrical content and production of the song. Carter’s screams, although still using a fry scream, seems unpolished, as though his voice is hoarse through crying rather than just his style of screaming. It’s completely unedited and imperfect which complements the song to no end. The lines: “you were brave until the very end/you made us all so proud”, and “I can feel you fading/and it’s ruining my soul/just stay with me/I don’t want to be alone”, truly captures all the pain of losing someone/yourself.

‘Loss’ is definitely a hidden gem of the album. You never hear anyone talking in great length about this song but when you really focus on the theme of the album and the contents of the song, it’s genuinely defining. It’s an extremely repetitive song which I would usually hate, and do hate in some songs on this album; however, in this particular song, it serves the narrative well. The lyrics almost entirely follow the pattern of “I lost my lover/I lost my wife/I lost all purpose in my life.” This is clearly used on purpose to show how when angry because of yourself, or your own mind, it’s all you can think about, over and over. It’s a strikingly crucial song for the album, which simply wouldn’t be the same without it.

It would appear that ‘Blossom’ has held out well against the harshness of time. With songs such as ‘Devil Inside Me’, ‘Loss’, ‘Beautiful Death’, and ‘Trouble’ featuring on their debut album, it’s no surprise that fame and fortune followed close after, and based on the theme of the album, they deserved it. This album well and truly deserves an 8/10 for pure perfection in capturing what it’s like being inside a troubled mind, and bringing awareness to it.

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Bad

With only a few months to go until the 5 year anniversary of their fame-defining album, it was about time to check back in with ‘Blossom’ and see if it’s still ridden with alt-rock gems. At 34 minutes long, the album was Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ first studio album followed their three-track EP ‘Rotten’. The album peaked at #18 on the UK Albums Chart, a great success after Carter’s two failed bands: Gallows and Pure Love. Although Gallows did in fact reach some level of success, the band was dropped by the Warner Bros. music label following their particularly harsh and brutal second album. Now, 9 years and millions of British pounds later, Frank Carter has released 3 studio albums with his new band Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes.

After Gallows’ brief but very real success, ‘Blossom’ is overwhelmingly underwhelming. Let’s start with the immediate fail on their behalf with the first song on the album: ‘Juggernaut’. Arguably, the song had potential to be an alt-rock anthem, with a beat and lyrics that's easy to become accustomed to. Unfortunately though, it’s beyond repetitive. For the first half of the song they repeat the first minute on the song, it isn’t until toward the end that anything interesting happens, though, even then, it’d only really be any good if you were in the middle of a pit.

Following soon after in the album, we’re met with yet another huge blow to the punk scene. ‘Fangs’ is yet another largely repetitive song, there is absolutely no progression within the song. It sounds as though it’s stuck in some sort of Groundhog Day where the Rattlesnakes can’t stop writing the same chorus over and over again. Is this really an alt-rock song? It follows a staggering level of pop traditions that generally just lets the team down. The song also has an uncanny amount of exact rhymes that aren’t very usual in song-writing these days. For example: “They way you move is so divine/It's sending shivers through my spine.” Rhyming like this in a song in the modern day appears considerably forced and altogether amateurishly written.

It sounds as though it’s stuck in some sort of Groundhog Day where the Rattlesnakes can’t stop writing the same chorus over and over again.

‘Primary Explosive’. Primary explosive… it’s very adequately named, we’ll give it that. This song, it’s truly an explosion of shit in the face of anyone who was expecting something good out of this song. No matter how many times you listen to the song, the only thing you can remember afterwards is when he says “primary explosive” in the chorus, considering this is just the name of the song, that can’t be a good thing. It’s just a very forgettable song. It’s the ultimate album-filling song.

You’ve probably noticed that this review sounds very repetitive in it’s comments about the songs being repetitive, but it’s all you can say! Even a song such as ‘Paradise’ where the lyrics are actually great, Frank Carter sounds exactly the same, the drums sound exactly the same, the guitar sounds exactly the same… It’s an extremely repetitive album where you can very rarely distinguish one song from another. More than anything though, I feel bad for the band. There’s no way they had much fun writing this album and I’m sure it’s these song’s I’ve spoken about that they least look forward to playing live.

It’s pretty clear that ‘Blossom’ most certainly did not live up to it’s prime back in 2015. The harshness of time certainly took another victim with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ debut album. Overall, it’s a very monotonous, colourless album, which is very unsurprising with songs such as ‘Primary Explosive’, ‘Paradise’, ‘Fangs’, and ‘Juggernaut’ featuring on the album. A disappointing 4/10 is deserving to ‘Blossom’.