Cage Fight aren’t pulling punches heading into release week.
The Cage Fight ‘Oxygen’ music video has just dropped, offering a suffocating glimpse into the band’s upcoming album ‘Exuvia’, due tomorrow via Spinefarm.
If the rollout so far has hinted at something heavy, ‘Oxygen’ makes it undeniable, this isn’t just aggression for the sake of it, there’s weight behind every second.
A track built on pressure
‘Oxygen’ leans into the kind of tension that doesn’t let up, it’s claustrophobic, urgent and deliberately uncomfortable, mirroring the mental spiral it’s built around.
Vocalist Rachel Aspe puts it bluntly (per Lambgoat):
“When your worries occupy all the space in your head, you’re navigating through fog; every task, every move, feels like a challenge. ‘Oxygen’ is about a fight against time, when everything becomes overwhelming and suffocating.”
That sense of being trapped isn’t abstract either. It’s grounded in something deeply personal.
The mask that carries everything
At the centre of the album’s visual identity is a radiotherapy mask worn by Aspe’s grandmother during cancer treatment, it’s not just imagery, it’s a physical object loaded with history.
Aspe explains: “The mask on the album cover is the radiotherapy mask my grandmother wore every day for her cancer treatment. It was moulded to her, and I’m now wearing it as she lives through me. The process was painful and exhausting. This is a symbol of strength, perseverance, and healing. It represents a cage you fight in, until you shed your skin and are reborn. The mask also has specific meanings for each song on the album.”
It’s a confronting detail, but it gives the project a sense of purpose that cuts through the noise.
Turning anxiety into something physical
The video for ‘Oxygen’ leans hard into that symbolism, it frames the mind as its own prison, where time keeps moving but you feel stuck in place.
Aspe adds: “In ‘Oxygen’, we wanted to portray the feelings of fear, oppression and anxiety. To be locked in this cage, pushed down by its weight. The mask here is our own mind, and overwhelming thoughts, while seeing time passing by and being powerless.”
No easy listening here
Cage Fight’s approach isn’t subtle, and it’s not meant to be. ‘Exuvia’ is shaping up to be a record about endurance, not escape, and ‘Oxygen’ makes it clear, this one’s going to sit heavy.
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