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Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes return with the new single, “My Town,” and its accompanying video, both featuring Joe Talbot of Idles. Produced by guitarist Dean Richardson, a first for the band, the result is incendiary. “My Town” is another example of why the pair are one of the most exciting outfits to emerge from England in recent history, and why Carter – since his early days in hardcore punk band Gallows and then as Pure Love – has become a vital voice in UK music, rallying against injustice, the patriarchy, right-wing politics and toxic masculinity.

Rewind to February 2020, the band had just played the gig of their lives, headlining Alexandra Palace in London when the world pressed the pause button. They initially went into the studio to bottle that intensity, fresh off the road with a powerful live show and on the heels of the #4 debut for End of Suffering. But during the uncertainty of the past year, where they snatched pockets of time to write together when they could, Carter and Richardson ended up with something far gnarlier, channeling all their frustrations and the grittiness of the city into new music.

“My Town” is a bruising metaphor for “our collective mental health falling apart,” says Carter. It is a metaphoric look at the collective mental health of a world after a barrage of lockdowns. Imagining every person as a town and its residents, the town representing the mental stability and wellbeing of that person. Frank says: “It’s easy to dissociate when it’s someone else’s problem but we are each responsible for keeping the streets clean, looking out for our fellow neighbours and acting with kindness and respect as we walk through life. We can look into this town and see the seedy underbelly, the dirt, the disdain, the undercurrent of hate and despair. And then we are reminded that ‘My Town’ looks just like yours, and no one gives a fuck at all and if we don’t start looking after ourselves soon then we are all going to be in big trouble.”

The song also features Joe Talbot of Idles. Carter says he saw Talbot’s Bristol-based band perform and couldn’t stop crying - “they had a tremendous effect on me” - and the two have since become firm friends. Carter invited Talbot to guest, and the result is this stand out track.