Anoxia weep over the pain of betrayal in their single and video Tears, I Bleed — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Everybody needs a good cry once in a while. And if you’re intense, you cry blood. Anoxia are very intense. On Tears, I Bleed, powerhouse vocalist Chrystal James and her crew don’t just shed a few drops of type O negative from their ducts: They rain down a torrent that proves why they’re the pride of Baltimore’s post-industrial metal scene.
The song rams home its aggressively wounded sentiments with a piledriving, mechanistic feel that’s elevated by immaculate orchestration and arrangement. The key is James’ astounding voice, which segues effortlessly from a throaty moan to an operatic soar as she takes stock of a love affair that’s left nothing but devastation in its wake:
“Can’t you see?
Look what you’ve done to me
I can’t explain it
But I can’t breathe
And I hope it hurts when you think of me
Drown in the tears I’ve bleed
I hope I drown in my tears I bleed.”
It’s an intense, emotionally charged odyssey the band wrote to convey “the agony of betrayal and the powerful emotions that follow.” James’ impassioned delivery symbolizes the internal struggle between holding on to love and acknowledging that it’s been tainted beyond repair — albeit with cleansing catharsis, not pointless self-flagellation, as the intended outcome. Call ’em drama queens and they’ll probably thank you. “I’ve always been extremely theatrical,” James says.
The gist of the Anoxia mythology is that the musicians — guitarists Relic and Dust, bassist Ash and drummer/programmer Void — are “guardians” summoned by a spell and appearing before the audience in the form of undead animals. Their masked anonymity is totally in keeping with the modern-day Ghost / Slipknot school of presentation that’s become a subgenre unto itself. And it’s showed off to appropriately eerie effect in the Tears, I Bleed video, which alternates starkly backlit performance footage with shots of James kneeling on a concrete floor and marking it with chalk. What she’s drawing is the Norse vegvisir, also known as the Viking compass, a magic stave that’s said to help the bearer find their way through rough weather.
James has had to brave some storms of her own. She founded Anoxia back in 2004, only to have its momentum stalled by an eight-year hiatus she describes as involuntary — a case of being silenced. (“A hiatus is never something ANY artist wants to experience,” she says, somewhat cryptically, “but sometimes the universe makes you sit down for a while.”) Having re-emerged in 2022 with a new configuration and focus, the group has been on a real roll ever since, including the release of their first album, Relinquish The Quiet, in 2023.
Watch the video for Tears, I Bleed above, hear more from Anoxia below, and join them on their website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
