After leaving the band Gallows in 2011 due to artistic differences, Carter started Pure Love, a project with guitarist Jim Carroll, ending that band in 2015 to form Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes with guitarist Dean Richardson, formerly of Heights. Carter and Richardson had met a few years earlier, when Carter asked Richardson, who was also a designer and coder, to make him a website. With The Rattlesnakes, Carter returned to his hardcore roots, while retaining some of the power-pop sensibilities of Pure Love.
