Shame on me for being late to Frankie and The Witch Fingers‘ excellent 2023 album, Data Doom. As you can guess from its title, the overall theme of the record is how technological creep into every facet of our lives and how it’s helped the rise of lethargy, rage, apathy, and fascism.
It’s another blast-your-face record from them that features a bunch of tracks that have become fan-favorites at their live shows. Starting with the low-end distortion of “Empire” that turns into a riff that feels like a lit match above a pool of gasoline, the album barely lets up for a moment. The outro alone might crush you and gets the whole crowd jumping.
“Burn Me Down” is about lead singer Dylan Sizemore wanting to be cremated after he’s dead. “Electricide” is a fast (check out those Nick Aguilar beats!) warning about letting technology overwhelm you (“Electric eye disrupts the way we know ourselves. So, go on, feed yourself electric pesticide and never question why we live the illusion.”).
“Syster System” is a satirical takedown / warning on the creeping influence of technology and how it disguises itself as a boon while often dehumanizing everything around it (“Syster System you’re the dream. All the planets and the beings. You’re the rhythm that we need for future machinery. Syster System is the code embedded in us to erode.”). The second half of it is a wild ride with Nikki “Pickle” Smith‘s bass leading the charge.
“Weird Dog” has funky, crunchy guitar work from Sizemore and Josh Menashe in a song about encroaching fascism (“Waking up the core, waking up the hive, waking up the Tao, waking may arise. Breaking up the war, breaking up the lies, breaking down your door just to watch you sleep.”).
“Doom Boom” is a slick one that centers the album with a call for an opening of our consciousness and a turn away from being “shackled to lies” (as well as hate, war, politicians, death, work, wait, and idealism). This could’ve been a Parliament track in another life. “Futurephobic” is an instant mosh-pit generator with its chant-ready chorus of “System has no way to connect!” chorus, but don’t miss Sizemore’s biting lyrics about how doom scrolling is creating brain rot and stealing your privacy and information (“Come ye witness the intended marketing, dopamine spiking, hooked up to the ever-changing chattering, listening, gathering.”). “Mild Davis” is another such warning (in 7/4, no less) with lyrics like “You there, ensnared by the god of wired screens, fuels the flicker of the infernal machine.”).
This warning (which also includes consumerism and capitalism) is delivered a final time on the last track, “Political Cannibalism,” with Sizemore’s bluntest lyrics on the whole album: “We consumers eat ourselves. Planet’s been disemboweled. Mass extraction bleeds us out, makes a terrible sound. Glutinous feeders at the helm. They’ve been grinding us down as we dine our own kind. They stack money and count.”
This is top-tier stuff. FATW have yet to miss.
Keep your mind open.
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