Words By: Jordyn Kieft

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes released their highly anticipated new studio album Sticky. Since their debut in 2015, the British punk rockers have built a reputation for blistering anthems that straddle eras and genres, putting the redefined punk-rock band in their own category of music. With over 150 million total global streams, The Rattlesnakes challenge injustice, societal norms, and toxic masculinity in their music while also encouraging equality, empowerment, and mental health awareness.

Released via AWAL Recordings and produced by co-founder Dean Richardson [guitar, synth/keys], Sticky is Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ fourth full-length album. Described as the most addictive record of their career the 10 track album is highlighted with fiery singles like “My Town” featuring IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot, “Go Get A Tattoo” featuring Lynks — which has been featured on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation and Out Of Order with Stryker — “Sticky” and “Off With His Head” featuring Cassyette.

DIY Magazine hails that “Sticky captures life in all its wonderful messiness, its ugliness and glory, and does so with an infectious sense of fun…a record full of wins.” In addition, lead singer Frank Carter says this about the album: “This entire record is a celebration of everything that has been taken away from us, the chaos that makes us human. The emotional scavengers we are, hunting around in all the wrong places for an immediate feeling we can compartmentalize and inject straight into our hearts without fear of consequence.”

Sticky appropriately begins with its title track — a head-bobbing, snarling call to arms punk fans and justice warriors alike will find themselves enjoying. Celebrating the thrill of returning to freedom and all the joy and madness that entails, “Sticky” begins the complex journey Kerrang! describes as “fun and furious.” “My Town,” described by Carter as “a metaphor for our collective mental health falling apart,” discusses the stigma around mental health. The Rattlesnakes suggest through the lyrics that we all are experiencing similar struggles, but we keep our thoughts and feelings inside, thus isolating ourselves.

“Go Get A Tattoo,” an ode to tattooing [Carter’s other full-time gig] and “Off With His Head,” a raucous take on patriarchal society, keep the messy, yet glorious journey going. The tracks are characterized by a directness accompanied by rampaging energy and attitude-filled rock. Paste comments on these tracks and the album as a whole by saying “As far as frontmen are concerned, [Frank Carter] denies the existence of gravity and can punish his vocal chords with a volley of harrowing screams and muscular melodies.” “Original Sin” featuring Bobby Gillespie completes the forward-thinking and progressive album with a wonderful conclusion to the exhilarating and tumultuous journey that Carter takes us on. Much like NME described the album as a whole, “Original Sin” is “a pressure release” of a song.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes will be headlining a tour across the UK later this fall to support the release of Sticky with a full European outing in 2022. Sticky is now available digitally and on CD, vinyl, and cassette and new merch items are available on the band’s official webstore.

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