Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

US / UK based cybergrind group THOTCRIME has today shared a new single and music video, titled Garden Court, featuring bagel rabbit. Garden Court is the third track to be taken from THOTCRIME‘s forthcoming third album, CONNECTION ANXIETY, due out via Prosthetic Records on August 16. The video features footage from the bands first ever full line-up headline US tour dates, filmed in June 2023.

Stream Garden Court (feat. bagel rabbit) via Apple Music, TIDAL, Deezer, Bandcamp and Spotify
Pre-order CONNECTION ANXIETY here.

Speaking on the single, Hayley Elizabeth (vocals) comments:  “Garden Court is about drastic changes I’ve made in the last year, while also reflecting on the things I didn’t think I’d miss about Philadelphia as much as the big things I thought I would. It’s named after the beer store me and my friends would always go to down the street from my apartment to get snacks and ciders and sometimes breakfast sandwiches from. Learning they don’t have bodegas or papi stores like that out here in the midwest was a jarring realization, and I’ll never forget the memories I made getting odd European chocolates or Asian import snacks from that place.

“The song also, however, dictates that I’ve made my choices because I made a conscious effort to change my life regardless if it was for better or for worse. It personifies an inner fight between wanting to prove to yourself that you were right and wanting to shape your own reality despite it not seeming the way you wanted it to be.”

Garnering praise from outlets such as Metal Hammer, Kerrang! and Metal Injection, THOTCRIME’s sophomore effort, D1G1T4L_DR1FT, was the beginning of a self-actualization for the young band. Two albums under their belts and countless hours spent collaborating via online servers and the first ever full member line-up tour soon followed in the United States, with Hayley Elizabeth (vocals), Melody Jane (guitar) and Dottie Homler (drums) meeting co-founding member Les Beaux Plastiques (production) for the first time in person.

Affirming THOTCRIME’s evolution from a studio project into something altogether more tangible, writing for CONNECTION ANXIETY took place throughout 2023. With the group’s voracious creative appetite rarely letting up as things took a more collaborative turn on the production front as Elizabeth soon found herself taking on shared duties with Beau across the 10 songs. Homler also took the lead on all drum programming on hir final work with the band and Melody’s approach to guitar saw the use of live instrumentation compared to THOTCRIME’s previously digitally inclined tendencies.

THOTCRIME‘s propensity for whiplash-inducing breakdowns and edge of your seat blast beating is still there in songs such as We Hope Some Good May Come of This (feat. Bottom Surgery) and the title-track, whilst lead single The Wrong Way positively brims with saccharine hooks as Hayley posits “Is it wrong to try something new?” in a chorus fit for the most intoxicating of PC-Music artists.

Emancipating from past sores and pains is a necessary path of growth, which makes CONNECTION ANXIETY’s gravitation towards positivity and a warehouse rave informed sonic palette singular in its creators earnestness and sanguinity. Elizabeth’s heart-on-her-sleeve lyricism is less an abandon of THOTCRIME’s previous works fraughtness, so much as a perspective shift into the self-affirming and proactive.

Tied together by returning digital artist Yam Lynn, CONNECTION ANXIETY’s smile beneath the cracks rather than over them is a testament to resilience by way of dancing with and for those dearest.

CONNECTION ANXIETY tracklist:
1. A Better World Is Possible
2. Behind the Cracks
3. We Hope Some Good May Come of This (feat. Bottom Surgery)
4. This Podcast Could’ve Been Four Seasons
5. Garden Court (feat. bagel rabbit)
6. The Wrong Way
7. Connection Anxiety
8. Existent
9. Beyond the Journey’s End
10. My Final Escape

Upcoming THOTCRIME shows:
Connection: Disrupted West Coast w/ Anita Velveeta

August 24 – Howdy – Kansas City, MOAugust 25 – Seventh Circle – Denver, CO
August 27 – Las Vegas, NV
August 29 – Knockout – San Francisco, CA
August 30 – Scribble – Los Angeles, CA
August 31 – The Nile – Phoenix, AZ
September 1 – The Minnow – Albuquerque, NM
September 2 – Andy’s Bar – Denton, TX
September 4 – LCY Media – Birmingham, AL
September 5 – Healer – Indianapolis, IN
September 6 – Pillar Forum – Minneapolis, MN
September 7 – Subterranean (downstairs) – Chicago, IL

THOTCRIME is:

Hayley Elizabeth (she/her) – Vocals
Les Beaux Plastiques (she/her) – Producer
Melody Jane (she/her) – Guitar
Dottie Homler (sie/hir) – Drums