Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band that formed in 1992 in Sydney. Though the band's mainstream success has been minimal, four of the group's albums have entered the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart: A Man's Not a Camel (1999), Smoko at the Pet Food Factory (2011), Hi-Vis High Tea (2017) and The Cup of Pestilence (2023). Hi-Vis High Tea charted the highest of these, peaking at number nine in the charts.
The group has also supported Australian tours by American punk bands such as The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, The Lawrence Arms and Blink-182. Frenzal Rhomb have also toured in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa and Taiwan. The band has undergone several line-up changes, with lead vocalist Jason Whalley serving as the band's sole constant member.
Members:
Jason "Jay" Whalley - lead vocals, occasional guitar (1992-present)
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall - guitar, backing vocals (1996-present)
Gordon "Gordy" Forman - drums (1998-present; hiatus 2015-2016)
Michael "Dal" Dallinger (AKA Dal Failure) - bass, backing vocals (2019-present)
Former members:
Alexis "Lex" Feltham - bass, backing vocals (1992-2002)
Ben Costello - guitar (1992-1996)
Bruce Braybrooke - drums (1992-1993)
Karl Perske - drums (1993-1995)
Nat Nykyruj - drums (1995-1998)
Tom Crease - bass, backing vocals (2002-2019)
Name Origin:
The name came from Fresnel rhomb, which is a prism-like device invented by the 19th century French engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
"Because we thought we were hilarious and then we entered ourselves into the band competition at Sydney University and I'm pretty sure they said "don't come in here with your stupid band names, like if you have a band, have a proper name and you need it by this afternoon", and so were like frantically sort of looking around for things and we opened up one of Ben's textbooks and there was this French physicist."
Jason Whalley, J Files on Double J Podcast (30 Jun 2022)
"Yeah, and we sort of mangled his name and came up with a Frenzal Rhomb. I think his name was Frenel. It's like spelled Fresnel. Yeah, and he had this thing called the Fresnel rhomb and yeah, we sort of butchered it and came up with Frenzal Rhomb."
Ben Costello, J Files on Double J Podcast (30 Jun 2022)
From: Sydney, Australia
Genre(s):
Punk rock,
skate punk,
melodic hardcore
Active From: 1992-present
Associated Acts:
The Offspring,
Bad Religion,
NOFX,
The Lawrence Arms,
Blink-182