Sexual abuse revelations from Alice Glass add a whole new meaning to these Crystal Castles tracks

Musician Alice Glass, best known for her time in electronic duo Crystal Castles, released a statement on Tuesday revealing years of abuse at the hands of her former bandmate Ethan Kath.

According to Glass, the physical, sexual and emotional abuse began when she was only 15 years old and continued until she left Crystal Castles in 2014.

For me and my edging-towards-edgy group of high school friends, Crystal Castles was a musical mainstay. The raw, murmur-y lyrics and pulsing instrumentals were peak "yeah, I have a Tumblr," and we ate that shit up.

I got punched in the face (for the first and last time) at a Crystal Castles show in high school, and Alice Glass spit Hennessy at babe's social media manager at a different concert — and we loved both loved it.

But according to Glass's statement, there was something much darker lurking behind the music that she and her musical partner and abuser produced. "I was miserable," Glass said. "And my lyrics indirectly spoke to the pain and oppression that I was enduring."

The themes interwoven throughout Crystal Castles's discography- bodily decay, emotional turmoil and religious iconography abound in their lyrics- speak heavily to the agony that Glass was covering up from the outside world.

"Baptism," a track off of the band's second album, describes to an unwanted sacrament in the song's chorus with the lyrics: "Hold my head under the water/Take a breath for the Father/Learn to love, lessons repeating/The chronicles are so misleading."

Objectively, this seems like a biblical reference, but in the context of Glass's statement, it could easily be adapted to be a description of ritualistic abuse by an authority figure.

Later in the song's hook, Glass intones, "this is your baptism/And you can't forgive 'em." Her vocals are emotive and raw. Occasionally, her singing borders on shrieking.

Another song off of the band's sophomore album, "Celestica," holds more than meets the eye in light of Glass's allegations against her bandmate.

Although Kath apparently told press that the track was about a worker in a plastic factory who committed suicide, some of the lyrics seem to reflect the ambivalence that's often present in an abusive relationship.

"When it's cold outside hold me/Don't hold me/When I choose to rest my eyes coax me/Don't coax me," Glass croons in the track's bridge.

But analysis of both of these songs is pure speculation. The one song that Glass specifically referenced in her statement, however, was also the first single ever released by Crystal Castles, called "Alice Practice."

According to Kath, Glass's vocals on that track were the result of a recording demo. But Glass alleged that origin story was a fabrication designed to diminish her role as an artist. " It was another way of putting me down and preying on my insecurities," she said.

For what it's worth (almost nothing, in my opinion), Kath denies all of Glass's allegations against him. But I don't believe him, and it doesn't seem like other people are buying it either.

One question, however, remains: How do we treat the music that Alice Glass and her abuser created as the original incarnation of Crystal Castles? It could be argued that because of Kath's involvement, it's best to boycott the band's work altogether to avoid supporting someone who abused his bandmate for years.

But Glass herself called leaving Crystal Castles the most difficult decision of her life. "That band was everything to me," Glass said. "My music, my performances and my fans were all I had in the world."

Ultimately, however, she believes she made the right choice. And the right choice for Crystal Castles fans to make now is to believe and support her unequivocally, even if that means letting go of music that we love.

@k80way