The story of Brian Bee Frank

Rapid Tears — the Toronto years

It begins in Toronto in the late seventies. A young Brian “Bee” Frank fronts Rapid Tears in a metal scene that fills clubs like the Gasworks and El Mocambo — the same circuit that raised bands like Anvil.

Rapid Tears put out singles — Operation Airlift (1980), Headbang (1981) — the album Honestly and the EP Cry for Mercy (1984). None of it is on streaming; the original vinyl has become collector material, hunted by fans of early Canadian metal.

The bridge to Sweden

In 1985, in a Toronto studio called The Sound Kitchen, Frank meets a Swedish musician: Anders “LA” Rönnblom. He guests on four of Rönnblom’s tracks — a chance session that redraws the map of his life.

In 1987 he records an album in Sweden that never sees release. In 1990 he makes the move permanent: Toronto to Sweden, for good. His first Swedish band, Desert Rain, lasts about two years — one record, and shows across Scandinavia and Russia.

Killer Bee — the first swarm

With Rönnblom he founds Killer Bee — the band that becomes his life’s central act. In 1992 they play Moscow’s Red Square, in the first years after the wall came down: a story very few Western rock bands can tell.

Three albums follow in the nineties — Raw (1993), Cracked Up (1995) and World Order Revolution (1997), the latter featuring Kee Marcello of Europe — alongside relentless touring, before the band goes quiet around 1998.

The comeback decade

Killer Bee returns in 2011 with the compilation Almost There, and the records keep coming: From Hell and Back (2014), Rock Another Day (2015), Killing You Softly and Eye in the Sky (both 2016) — the latter recorded at Charger Studios in Örnsköldsvik with Frank as producer, engineer and mixer.

2015 is the American year: with guitarist Paul “Tonka” Chapman (ex-UFO) in the line-up, Killer Bee plays a nine-week North American tour — 40 cities across 35 states — followed by a UK tour in 2017 and shows documented into 2018.

The era closes with a final burst: the Tapes from the Attic EP (2018), a run of singles, and the album Remember the Times (2019).

Syndicated Madness

In 2022 Frank starts over — deliberately smaller and deliberately freer. Syndicated Madness is a studio partnership with multi-instrumentalist Pelle Karlsson (Louise Hoffsten, Electric Boys, The Boppers), who plays Hammond, piano, bass and guitar across the album It’s Not The End (2022).

The concept is a homecoming: back to the early-seventies records that made him — Bowie, ELP, Genesis, Alice Cooper, Zeppelin, Purple, The Guess Who, The Doors, Janis Joplin. The CD is a numbered edition of 300, each personally signed.

Louder & Prouder — the solo debut

In February 2026 comes the record that finally carries his own name: Chasing The Dragon, credited “Brian Bee Frank & Syndicated Madness”. Five tracks — Hate, Living in the Changes, Time, Shake It Loose, Let Me Come Home — produced, engineered and mixed by Frank himself.

A wave of press follows: Plus One Reviews calls it “A Lifetime of Truth in Every Beat”; a career feature coins the phrase The Analog Awakening. After 45+ years on stage, the story keeps moving — as he puts it himself: Louder & Prouder, straight ahead into the future.