Source: Album artwork
It’s been a pretty wild ride for Frank Carter. Going from hardcore hero, to indie-rocker back to punk star is a career path not many would have foreseen him on, but here we are. Just two years after he formed The Rattlesnakes with ex-Heights guitarist Dean Richardson, and here we are at Modern Ruin. There has been no small amount of hype made about this album, with frank appearing all over radio and magazines in the run-up to it.
Spoiler: the hype is entirely justified.
The difference even between this and Blossom is staggering. There is much less of the hardcore fury that bled into The Rattlesnakes from Frank’s early career; apart from the title track ‘Modern Ruin‘ there is basically none of the white-hot angry hardcore-punk that made up a lot of Blossom. But what we are instead treated to is a much more mature sounding FC&TR. If you liked ‘Devil Inside Me‘ or ‘I Hate You‘ off of Blossom then you are going to adore this album. Think those kind of big punk-rock anthems, but being played by a band who are 100% sure that this is what they want to be doing.
But, far from this being a “watering down” or a “selling out” it feels much more like this is where FC&TR want to be. That is, perhaps, the greatest strength of Modern Ruin. It’s played with all the heart and conviction that Blossom had, but it feels like the band are really enjoying it this time, really letting go and trusting themselves to make the music they want to make. There is not a single track on this album that doesn’t deserve to be played ad-infinitum, or even on the main stage of Reading or Download. Only two albums in and this band already feel like they are ready to be in those places.
Modern Ruin is an absolute stormer of an album. If you like old-school punk you’re going to like this. If you like catchy rock music, you’re going to like this. If you’re a fan of anything Frank Carter has put his name to in the past there is no way you can listen to this and not feel excited or energised to hear a frontman, now in his thirties and with a young daughter, playing youthful, heart-driven punk-rock that wipes the floor with
It’s hard to see how Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes are going to top this. But for now, Modern Ruin is a career masterpiece from the mind behind it all.
