Fotocrime – Security

Artoffact Records

We are deep in the throes of one of the darkest decades in American history, and if there were ever a time for our generation to need a soundtrack for the resistance, it’s now. Thankfully, that’s where Fotocrime comes in. The proudly antifascist darkwave project has been on a discography hot streak since their debut EP Always Hell in 2017, and they’re back this month with their fifth album, Security, their fiercest and most biting album yet.

Fotocrime is helmed by Ryan Patterson, frontman of the best-ever punk rock band out of Louisville, Coliseum. While they always had a gothic influence in their music, Coliseum’s 2015 LP Anxiety’s Kiss showed the band channeling ‘80s alternative in the most direct way they ever had, incorporating keyboards and thumping bass grooves on tracks like “We Are The Water” and “Dark Light of Seduction” reminiscent of Echo & The Bunnymen and early U2. Coliseum would go on hiatus the following year, leaving room for Fotocrime to pick up exactly where they left off, with Anxiety’s Kiss really feeling like the prelude to Principle Of Pain, Fotocrime’s first full-length in 2018.

Since then, Fotocrime has released album after album of punchy, infectious post-punk and alternative dance music, never shying away from political critique alongside their dark romanticism. On Security, Patterson has no time to mince words, delivering ten tracks in just over thirty minutes. The single “Grifter” warns, “One cold night, revenge will have its say. They’ll dance as your blood drains. No tears were shed as they poured your remains into an unmarked grave.” Patterson enlists two heavy metal hitters on “Unthinkable,” with former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg charming the skins atop Fotocrime’s usual drum machine backbone, and Napalm Death vocalist Barney Greenway lending his trademark growls to the outro.

With the additional appearances and the band’s progressive platform, Security is wall-to-wall, energetic goth-and-roll, from the opening pair “Crimewave” and “Plowjob” to the second side sequence of “Intimidation” and “Dreamstate.” Fotocrime continues to be a necessary force in the underground, crafting long-lasting anthems for the leather jacket wearers of the revolution.