English band Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes are entering a new creative phase, with news their fifth studio album, 'Dark Rainbow', will arrive early 2024 – alongside a world tour that lands in Australia.
Lead single 'Man Of The Hour' chaperons the group's shift in sound, with 'southern gothic balladry and crooning alt-rock' at the heart of this brooding track that questions the role of rock stardom in our modern world."We talk about how rock and roll will never die, but we never really talk about how maybe the idea of the rock star should die," singer Frank Carter says.
"The whole concept and what it means has always been this glamourised moment, but ultimately when I put that suit on, it didn't go very well for me.
"I'm just witnessing the world change so quickly around me and I'm still trying to come to terms with who I am and what the authentic version of me is.
"By giving people what I thought they wanted I think I got further and further away from who I actually am."
Next April, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes will headline concerts in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Geelong, Brisbane and Sydney.
The follow-up to 2021 album 'Sticky', 'Dark Rainbow' finds the band in a contemplative mood as they reflect on the journey so far. "Normally we don't look backwards when making a record, but this has been looking to reach us for a long time," guitarist Dean Richardson explains.
"Some songs are old ideas reworked, fresh eyes on something that didn't quite fit on the other records. Some of these songs were lost along the way because basically we didn't really give them the space."
It's not so much a new direction, but Carter and Richardson centring who they really are, mining their souls and unearthing the music that lives within them.
"From the start, the ballads always came easy to us," Richardson remembers, "but at no point did we question whether we should make more of them. Now we are."
'Dark Rainbow' will be released 26 January. Pre-order it.
Tickets on sale from 10am (local time) on 6 October.
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes 2024 Tour Dates
Tue 16 Apr - Magnet House (Perth)Thu 18 Apr - The Gov (Adelaide)
Fri 19 Apr - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Sat 20 Apr - Barwon Club (Geelong)
Tue 23 Apr - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Wed 24 Apr - Crowbar (Sydney)
