Crystal Castles was a band formed in 2003 in Toronto, Canada. They became mainstream in 2009-2012, capturing the world’s attention with their experimental electronic sound fusing emotion into their music. Their music can be described as “ferocious sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force,” according to reviewer Jack Shankly who posted on the Crystal Castles Wikipedia page.  

    They have heavy goth-inspired lyrics and stimulating beats. You can argue that listening to too much of the deafening video-game-esque beats immerses you in their music even more, like an addicting pinball machine with dainty yet raspy sound effects for your ears.  

   Being my most listened-to artist for three years on Spotify, they mean a lot to me as a band. Their music influences my fashion and music taste in general, and I’m sure many can relate to the band’s main vocalist, Alice Glass, with her presence, disposition, and flair.   

Band Member and Origins 

  Crystal Castles was originally supposed to be a solo project led by Ethan Kath, the band’s producer. Before Crystal Castles, he was part of several bands, the most popular one being Kill Cheerleader, who were known for their extreme concerts. He met Alice Glass, the band’s vocalist, performing in a punk band around December 3rd, 2003, and invited her to amplify the band with her vehement, sometimes soft, voice. Alice’s voice isn’t always featured in every Crystal Castles track, but when it is, it makes it more profound and inherently better. 

   Crystal Castles also has an underrated drummer, Christopher Chartrand, who also performed in Kill Cheerleader with Ethan Kath. There’s not much known about him, but his drumming is mainly used in tours, and it gives the band that extra temper and hostility that the electronic beats truly deserve. His drumming is preeminent, and his style and appearance influence mine the most out of every member in the band. There are more stand-in drummers who were briefly a part of Crystal Castles, but they’re not as prominent as Chartrand is.  

Pertinence, Achievements, and Discography 

   Crystal Castles may be a new name to many, yet you might’ve heard their songs somewhere else before. They died out after 2017, but their songs still reach millions of listeners on Spotify every month. Their most popular songs now, according to Spotify, are “Vanished”, with 109,000,000 plays, and “Crimewave”, with 144,000,000 plays.  

    Part of the reason the band still holds relevance is because of TikTok; it seems a different song of theirs blows up every month or so. Another part of the reason has to do with how the music is produced; the exhilarating beats create a sensation that can barely be found in other artists’ music. It’s a sound many bands can’t recreate, so fans like me tend to repeat their tracks for hours on end.  

   They have even performed their tracks “Baptism” and “Intimate” live at Jimmy Kimmel, and gained enough recognition to have legendary Robert Smith from The Cure featured in the album version of “Not in Love”. 

   Crystal Castles doesn’t have a large discography, with only four albums officially released. They made their debut in 2008 with their album simply named Crystal Castles. Kath and Glass continued to make music as a duo releasing albums (II) in 2011 and (III) in 2012.  

    When Glass left Crystal Castles to pursue a solo career, Kath produced a new album titled Amnesty (I) in 2016 with a new vocalist, Edith Francis. Francis may not surpass Glass in terms of talent for many fans, but her softer voice still holds ground on the band’s music, and her personality is just as valued and distinguished as Glass’ is. 

   My favorite and most influential album of theirs was (II), which received high reviews from critics, reaching 4.5 out of 5 stars on Billboard. Their other album (III) stayed #77 on the Billboard 200 for two weeks, according to Billboard.com. They have also reached many more milestones, like “Top Electronic Music” or “Top Indie Music” several times across their four albums. They were even included in NME’s “Top 50 Albums of the Decade”.   

Criticisms and the Eventual Downfall of Crystal Castles… Where are they now? 

   Crystal Castles has attracted a lot of speculation and criticism over the years, starting with their first musical EP. Critics and fans alike have stated that Crystal Castles samples excessively, most of their tracks containing lyrics or sounds sampled from other media, ranging from artists or even video games. Kath even used samples without permission and took visuals from artists without their consent or compensation. I personally think that this controversy was favorable, as it allowed both vocalists to stand out with their staggering voice while still containing some samples in the music.  

   Another criticism associated with the band is their archive of unreleased music. Every artist has unreleased music, but with the small number of tracks officially released by the band, the large library of unreleased songs just agonizes fans. They have at least fifty unreleased music tracks compared to around 60 officially released tracks, according to a YouTube playlist called CRYSTAL CASTLES // UNRELEASED uploaded by SCRINIARII.  

   The downfall of Crystal Castles is a riveting and upsetting case. The lead vocalist, Alice Glass, released a lengthy document where she accuses the band’s producer, Ethan Kath, of sexual assault and violence in 2017. Kath denied the indictment and tried to sue Glass for defamation. Whether or not these allegations were true is still ambiguous, as court records on the case don’t prove either side right. The official document released by Glass is harrowing to read and puts a dent in the enjoyment many fans had in their music. The sincerity of their formation and Kath’s misconduct turned the popular band into a desolate shell of what it once was. 

   Fans, however, should support Alice Glass’ new solo career; she looks healthy on her social media. She is ardent and somewhat consistent in her music. It’s a different style from Crystal Castles, but it’s still gratifying nonetheless.  

   Kath’s whereabouts are still unknown, but his current partner has posted pictures of herself dressed in, of all of things, several Alice Glass-inspired outfits with Kath present in the photos. This type of behavior was hypocritically suspicious and strange. Crystal Castles as a band might be dead and surrounded by contention, but they can come back at any moment, or at least us fans still have that ounce of hope.  

    Crystal Castles was a band formed in 2003 in Toronto, Canada. They became mainstream in 2009-2012, capturing the world’s attention with their experimental electronic sound fusing emotion into their music. Their music can be described as “ferocious sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force,” according to reviewer Jack Shankly who posted on the Crystal Castles Wikipedia page.  

    They have heavy goth-inspired lyrics and stimulating beats. You can argue that listening to too much of the deafening video-game-esque beats immerses you in their music even more, like an addicting pinball machine with dainty yet raspy sound effects for your ears.  

   Being my most listened-to artist for three years on Spotify, they mean a lot to me as a band. Their music influences my fashion and music taste in general, and I’m sure many can relate to the band’s main vocalist, Alice Glass, with her presence, disposition, and flair.   

Band Member and Origins 

  Crystal Castles was originally supposed to be a solo project led by Ethan Kath, the band’s producer. Before Crystal Castles, he was part of several bands, the most popular one being Kill Cheerleader, who were known for their extreme concerts. He met Alice Glass, the band’s vocalist, performing in a punk band around December 3rd, 2003, and invited her to amplify the band with her vehement, sometimes soft, voice. Alice’s voice isn’t always featured in every Crystal Castles track, but when it is, it makes it more profound and inherently better. 

   Crystal Castles also has an underrated drummer, Christopher Chartrand, who also performed in Kill Cheerleader with Ethan Kath. There’s not much known about him, but his drumming is mainly used in tours, and it gives the band that extra temper and hostility that the electronic beats truly deserve. His drumming is preeminent, and his style and appearance influence mine the most out of every member in the band. There are more stand-in drummers who were briefly a part of Crystal Castles, but they’re not as prominent as Chartrand is.  

Pertinence, Achievements, and Discography 

   Crystal Castles may be a new name to many, yet you might’ve heard their songs somewhere else before. They died out after 2017, but their songs still reach millions of listeners on Spotify every month. Their most popular songs now, according to Spotify, are “Vanished”, with 109,000,000 plays, and “Crimewave”, with 144,000,000 plays.  

    Part of the reason the band still holds relevance is because of TikTok; it seems a different song of theirs blows up every month or so. Another part of the reason has to do with how the music is produced; the exhilarating beats create a sensation that can barely be found in other artists’ music. It’s a sound many bands can’t recreate, so fans like me tend to repeat their tracks for hours on end.  

   They have even performed their tracks “Baptism” and “Intimate” live at Jimmy Kimmel, and gained enough recognition to have legendary Robert Smith from The Cure featured in the album version of “Not in Love”. 

   Crystal Castles doesn’t have a large discography, with only four albums officially released. They made their debut in 2008 with their album simply named Crystal Castles. Kath and Glass continued to make music as a duo releasing albums (II) in 2011 and (III) in 2012.  

    When Glass left Crystal Castles to pursue a solo career, Kath produced a new album titled Amnesty (I) in 2016 with a new vocalist, Edith Francis. Francis may not surpass Glass in terms of talent for many fans, but her softer voice still holds ground on the band’s music, and her personality is just as valued and distinguished as Glass’ is. 

   My favorite and most influential album of theirs was (II), which received high reviews from critics, reaching 4.5 out of 5 stars on Billboard. Their other album (III) stayed #77 on the Billboard 200 for two weeks, according to Billboard.com. They have also reached many more milestones, like “Top Electronic Music” or “Top Indie Music” several times across their four albums. They were even included in NME’s “Top 50 Albums of the Decade”.   

Criticisms and the Eventual Downfall of Crystal Castles… Where are they now? 

   Crystal Castles has attracted a lot of speculation and criticism over the years, starting with their first musical EP. Critics and fans alike have stated that Crystal Castles samples excessively, most of their tracks containing lyrics or sounds sampled from other media, ranging from artists or even video games. Kath even used samples without permission and took visuals from artists without their consent or compensation. I personally think that this controversy was favorable, as it allowed both vocalists to stand out with their staggering voice while still containing some samples in the music.  

   Another criticism associated with the band is their archive of unreleased music. Every artist has unreleased music, but with the small number of tracks officially released by the band, the large library of unreleased songs just agonizes fans. They have at least fifty unreleased music tracks compared to around 60 officially released tracks, according to a YouTube playlist called CRYSTAL CASTLES // UNRELEASED uploaded by SCRINIARII.  

   The downfall of Crystal Castles is a riveting and upsetting case. The lead vocalist, Alice Glass, released a lengthy document where she accuses the band’s producer, Ethan Kath, of sexual assault and violence in 2017. Kath denied the indictment and tried to sue Glass for defamation. Whether or not these allegations were true is still ambiguous, as court records on the case don’t prove either side right. The official document released by Glass is harrowing to read and puts a dent in the enjoyment many fans had in their music. The sincerity of their formation and Kath’s misconduct turned the popular band into a desolate shell of what it once was. 

   Fans, however, should support Alice Glass’ new solo career; she looks healthy on her social media. She is ardent and somewhat consistent in her music. It’s a different style from Crystal Castles, but it’s still gratifying nonetheless. 

Click here < Crystal Castles – Baptism & Intimate Live at Jimmy Kimmel> 

to view Crystal Castles live at Jimmy Kimmel in 2010, at the peak of their relevance. The concert and energy were outstanding, despite the mundane crowd.