Live Review: ALBUM REVIEW: Crystal Castles 'III'

Halloween may have just left, but with CRYSTAL CASTLES pumping out new album III, everyday can become a menacing nightmare.

Ethan Kath and Alice Glass have coming a long way since releasing their CRYSTAL CASTLES debut back in 2008. To regular music lovers who would rather listen to the poppy mainstream of today, CRYSTAL CASTLES would have seemed like the weirdest thing in the world with their unique electronic melodies creeping their way out of the speakers, but CRYSTAL CASTLES still gathered fans none the less because, well, they are rad. End of story. I took a listen of their third album III and have gathered the best bits for your pleasure.

PLAGUE          

Opening with the most haunting synths you can think of, ‘Plague’ is a true CRYSTAL CASTLES track. The synths wash over you like a wave in the ocean and the faint whisper of Alice Glass sounds ghostly as it seeps through the synth tracks. The track burst with various synths being turned up, and Alice Glass turns up her own volume as her vocals are also distorted and layered. The verses are soft and light and sound almost soothing until the chorus kicks into gear, ‘Plague’ is very mysterious and sly. The lyrics “I am a plague” echo through the chorus and fit the song like a torn glove, as the track almost feels like a sneaky plague itself. This track is the perfect opener for III because its true to the eerie CRYSTAL CASTLES sound that fans have come to love.

KEROSENE

Deep synths open this track with Alice Glass’ vocals being scattered across it in her regular smooth vocal, that reaches  high tones which cut and distorted throughout the track. 'Kerosene's' beat is steady but what makes it so unique is the scattered vocals and synths that seems to click together like a puzzle on meth. Listening to ‘Kerosene’, you can picture an old box television screen plagued with bad reception cutting the show off mid-sentence, in a way that resembling the vocals of ‘Kerosene’. The track is again sly and a tad spooky, which has become the signature mood of CRYSTAL CASTLES and just something you don’t hear every day.

AFFECTION

‘Affection’ is a lighter song and feels more like a sunny summer rather than a ghostly winter. The track is slower paced and seems to run a lot smoother than the other tracks on III, making seem a little more conventional. The synths tend to glide rather than creep through the track like wind through a tree and it just makes ‘Affection’ feel more welcoming and loving, hence the name ‘Affection’. Being one of the shorter songs on the album, ‘Affection’ is a bit of an underdog. The track hasn’t had as much attention as ‘Plague’ or ‘Wrath Of God’, but I think ‘Affection’ is a bit of a hidden gem as everything seems work a lot more smoothly on this track.

PALE FLESH

High, almost ear piercing synths, ‘Pale Flesh’ introduces a solid beat to the mix before jumping into some unique layering and another distorted Alice Glass. Glass’ vocals echo through the track and almost sound like she’s in pain. The echoing resembles one talking in a large, empty shed and you suddenly get the feeling that this song may just be a little bit sinister. About 50 seconds into the track, Glass’ vocals are turned down to a whisper, which may sound less helpless but now sound more frightening. CRYSTAL CASTLES have a reputation of being rather menacing, and ‘Pale Flesh’ tends to scream to the world, “we don’t give a fuck”. Glass seems to be able to connect with the listener in a way many other musicians don’t, and this has what has made CRYSTAL CASTLES so popular. ‘Pale Flesh’, to me, shows CRYSTAL CASTLES in the best light and is probably my favourite track on the record, no matter how ominous it is.

TRANSGENDER

This track opens with the sound of a broken jewelry box twinkling around some dark, ghostly vocals. ‘Transgender’ uses light distorted synths to create a track that is just well worth a listen. The beat comes into the track quite quickly and is fast-paced but still somehow seems to sound slow. Perhaps it’s because of the eerie echo and high pitched synths accompanying it. Alice Glass’ vocals again are distorted and ghost-like and matched with the child-like synths, ‘Transgender’ sounds like it is more a story, rather than just a track on their new album. Just by listening to the track from start to finish, the child-like synths with the ghostly mood feel like a broken memory of some sort, and Alice Glass’ vocals follow the track like, well, a ghost and so some, like me, may see a story forming as the song continues. ‘Transgender’ is a track that definitely makes you think.

TELEPATH

Fading in with some busy synths, ‘Telepath’ starts pretty quickly and then breaks into a different melody suddenly after the intro. ‘Telepath’ has a solid beat that you can easily nod your head to, but instead of having drums, or a drum like synth, creating the beat, CRYSTAL CASTLES has gone for the more unconventional approach and instead uses the synths that are playing the melody to create the beat by stopping them abruptly and looping them back again. The drum beat is added in a little further into the song, when more layers of synths are added as the song gradually builds itself. ‘Telepath’ is a fully instrumental track which just emphasizes how talented Ethan Kath and Alice Glass really are with their gadgets. ‘Telepath’ is a track you can get lost in and is quite relaxed, in an eerie sort of way.

CHILD I WILL HURT YOU

The name of this track already puts you on edge, its snappy and angry and so I wonder if the track ‘Child I Will Hurt You’ is the same. The track opens with a ghostly like hush, swimming in the air like smoke until again, that twinkling of a child’s jewelry box comes in and the track sounds just as menacing as the name suggests. The twinkle is then joined by some light synths, and this put more of a calm mood onto the track making sound less scary than first anticipated. Alice Glass’ voice joins in the mix as a light whisper sounding surprisingly soothing. Her light vocals sound like a lullaby when mixed with the light synths and ‘Child I Will Hurt You’ now sounds more like a lullaby for a child which definitely is different from the rest of III. The closing of CRYSTAL CASTLES third offering is definitely a surprise, but feels also somewhat appropriate as the closing track.

Words by Lauren Payne

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