Moderate Rock

This is great. No, like really great. When Frank Carter left Gallows and pursed less aggressive, more, ahem, palatable sounds, it seemed as if his taste for the power and violence of punk rock had gone too. ‘Blossom’ undeniably proves otherwise. This record finds Carter roaring white-hot rage over barreling metallic riffs (‘Juggernaut’), magnetic, melodic punk (‘Trouble’, ‘Fangs’), and brutal, bluesy bass-heavy dirges (‘Loss’) like he never went away. It’s blunt at times (sample lyric: “You’re a useless fucking cunt”) but never dull or lacking conviction, and whether he likes it or not, it’s all exactly the sort of sonic destruction Carter sounds best compèring. In fact, ‘Blossom’ is maybe as close as anyone has got to capturing his unmissable live intensity since Gallows incendiary ‘Orchestra of Wolves’. Pure fury.