When Cage Fight first came onto the scene in 2021, their story like so many at that time was one of trapped chaos, as the world was still finding it’s way through a global pandemic.

The only way to operate was with remote demos, and programmed drums. Front woman Rachel Aspe recording in her bedroom in France while TesseracT guitarist James Monteith sketched riffs from his shed in the UK. That environment defined their self titled debut.

But on Exuvia, due for release on May 1st via Spinefarm Records, there is something colder, deliberate and more venomous at work.

“Un Bon Souvenir” (Meaning a Good Memory) opens with; “Now the walls are caving in” and the song reads like the unmasking of a manipulator, a figure once powerful, now watching their kingdom crumble from the inside.

Speaking directly about the song, Aspe states;

Don’t bite the hand that feeds. This song is a reference to a previous experience in a band controlled by a toxic, manipulative person. It’s a reminder that bringing people down won’t elevate you. A challenging experience, but as he once said, it’s still a good memory, ça reste un bon souvenir.

The video depicts the unraveling of the protagonist’s false world, built on manipulation and control. Though he initially appears strong, his convictions are fragile, revealed by his reliance on dark spiritual guidance for reassurance. Once seeming to be the rock of this world, he is exposed as a snake. This is the collapse of a false king.

The Puppet Cuts The Strings

From the beginning, Cage Fight was built to channel guttural sounds as Monteith explained to us during their Primordial Radio Residency:

I was a teenager in the 90s which is when Slayer were kind of definitely one of the most exciting metal bands. I guess it’s their 80s works what they’re famous for but I wasn’t old enough to have listened to them in the 80s unfortunately. They were just a huge inspiration on me in terms of chaotic controlled chaos, fast extreme guitar playing. The riffs are all incredibly thrashy, really interesting uses of melody which I don’t think any other thrash bands were doing at the time.

Just the energy, the visceral power of Slayer. In particular there’s a live album they had called Decade of Aggression which apparently turned I think 31 this year which is crazy. That was a real game changer for me and I’ve always wanted to do something like that but I’ve never been in a band that had that kind of approach and Cage Fight was an opportunity to try and take some of that energy and chaotic speed of Slayer and put it into another project.

That “chaotic speed” is not aesthetic window dressing on “Un Bon Souvenir.” It also mirrors the emotional volatility inside the lyrics and thrash backbone that drives the confrontation behind the music.

When Aspe says “Like a puppet in your game… stitched and torn, dressed and worn to fit into your mold,” the aggression behind the riffing amplifies the anger, and when she declares “I’m the wolf among the sheep,” the music accompany that sentiment perfectly.

Cage Fight – Un Bon Souvenir Lyrics In Full

Shedding Skin On Exuvia

The album title “Exuvia” refers to the skin an animal sheds in order grow, and across the album, Aspe confronts grief on “Élégie,” tackles sexual harassment on “Pig,” and collaborates with Julien Truchan on “Pick Your Fighter.”

It’s no surprise that within 24 hours of the video going live on YouTube it instantly became the bands most viewed song with over 70k views. “Un Bon Souvenir” resonates because it is painfully relatable; dealing with manipulation in creative spaces, ego dressed up as leadership and silence mistaken for loyalty.

The song stands as the moment of rupture and how power built on manipulation collapses under its own weight. And once the wolf refuses to play sheep, the false king has nowhere left to hide.

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