Crystal Castles was a Canadian electronic music group formed in 2006 in Toronto, Ontario, by songwriter-producer Ethan Kath and singer-songwriter Alice Glass.

[5][6] Kath had already found a small bit of fame in Toronto's music scene, having made appearances on local television with his previous band, Kïll Cheerleadër.

[31] Crystal Castles performed at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, where the on-stage antics of Glass, including climbing the rigging and stage-diving, led to the organizers curtailing their set.

With the release of their second album, their music became more aesthetic and more sharply focused,[38] mixing synth pop and loud rock sounds with increasing skill.

[40] In January 2011, Alice broke her ankle and had to perform some shows on crutches,[41] but the band headlined the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2011 in the United Kingdom alongside Magnetic Man, Everything Everything and the Vaccines.

A fan's video of the band's June 9 performance at Parklife 2012 was uploaded to YouTube, boasting the first appearance of new song "Plague",[48] which was released as the album's first single on July 25.

[55] In October 2014, via a Facebook post, Alice Glass announced that she was leaving Crystal Castles, that the band was finished, and that she intended to pursue a solo career.

[58] On April 16, 2015, Ethan Kath released a new Crystal Castles track, "Frail", featuring a new vocalist named Edith Frances.

The caption was soon removed, but Glass responded by calling Kath's statement "manipulative" and said she helped shaped the band's aesthetic from the very beginning.

[63] They were included in the announced lineup for the 79 Cents event at SXSW, a concert showcase organized by Tumblr to highlight women's income disparity.

[70] On October 24, 2017, Glass published an official statement that detailed events of Kath subjecting her to sexual, physical and mental abuse during her time in Crystal Castles.

[5][57] Kath responded the same day in a statement issued to Pitchfork through his attorney, where he called the accusations "pure fiction" and said he was consulting with his lawyers as to his legal options.

[72] Crystal Castles has since been inactive, having not released any new material, performed any concerts, or even provided any updates on its own status since prematurely ending their tour.

[76] In an interview with The Daily Beast, Glass and four other women came forward alleging that Kath had sexually preyed on them when they were teenagers and he was in his mid to late twenties.

With Kath using his fame with Crystal Castles and Kill Cheerleader to get in contact with them at a young age, the alleged victims stated that he took advantage of their naivety and supplied them with drugs and alcohol in order to coerce them into sexual acts.

[77] Glass later gave an interview with The Guardian and further elaborated on Kath's behavior towards her, commenting that he had thrown her phone out of a moving car, torn her hair out and lied about the nature of her rib injury.

Kath also held onto Glass' passport and controlled her finances, preventing her from having her own cell phone or credit card until a couple of years before she left.

Glass also mentioned that if she ever thought of leaving Crystal Castles, Kath would threaten to replace her with someone "who's a better singer and who would put up with a lot worse than [she] would".

[78] Crystal Castles' musical style was described by reviewer Jack Shankly as "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy [sic] glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever.

"[79] In a 2008 review for the BBC, Sophie Hammer wrote that to listen to Crystal Castles "is to be cast adrift in a vortex of deafening pain without a safety net.