Sleep Token IV: Alkaline

We are back with the fourth instalment of our Sleep Token series. This week we explore the captivating track "Alkaline" from their Sophomore album, This place will become your tomb,  and uncover its hidden meanings.

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Transcript

[Speaker 1] (0:23 - 3:25)

All right, we are back with mandatory music with another sleep token song. This will be the fourth one in sleep token. I don't know what song that was, but we are going to be doing alkaline of the second album, I believe.

And, you know, Mike and I are down the sleep token journey. We'll do this one. We'll do another one next week.

And then and then, yeah, we'll give you our full review of it. But, Mike, any expectations for the song or is pretty much going to please? Well, I think whatever I do say is obviously going to be wrong.

And you got to stay consistent in your wrongness. I'm going to stay consistently wrong. I am going to go out on a limb like last week.

I said we're going to get yelled at and we didn't. And I'm going to say, no, we're not going to get yelled at this time. I don't I just don't see it happening as I don't think this is really.

The band for that, maybe this song will prove me wrong, but I don't I just they're not a screamy, screamy band. And that's totally because he's got an amazing voice. And I wouldn't scream either if I could sing like that.

Yeah. Right. And there's too many other elements to their music.

Like sure, there's the heavy stuff, but there isn't there's no need to scream. There seems there's a lot of effort in what I've been kind of recalling and recollecting is singing style. And there's definitely an intention to making sure the words are pronounced a certain way that he wants them to be pronounced.

Do you know what I mean? Like he's trying to accentuate certain parts of the words and lyrics, which is which is very effective, you know. But it's all in my mind, it's all about mood.

Yeah. You know, it's not like this is a it's it's it's what is the feeling, the emotion and the mood of the song more more so than a single riff or lick that you're like, this is a banger riff. Yeah.

I can, you know, curl the lip, bang the head. Yeah. All that stuff.

That's this isn't what this is about. Yeah. It's like I can't even pick out like melody lines or riffs of a lot of their songs.

It's just the mood that you get. But like, for example, with Metallica, you go, understand, man, it's like you just immediately know that. So, yeah.

Did you know here's some Metallica trivia for you? This is today. The Black Album became the fourth album ever to reach 750 weeks on the Billboard Top 200.

Way to go, boys. It was that it's them, Dark Side of the Moon. Journey's like Journey's greatest hits.

Gotta be Thriller on there, maybe. Bob Marley, a Bob Marley record. That makes sense.

Bob Marley. Yeah. Probably after he passed away and everybody discovered him.

But yeah, fourth one ever. That's pretty crazy. 750 weeks in the Top 200.

And Kate Bush in fifth. No, I don't know. And counting, I guess it is still in there.

It's just it's good for them, man.

[Speaker 2] (3:25 - 3:25)

That's awesome.

[Speaker 1] (3:25 - 3:53)

And the fastest one to do it, too. It's only been 30, 30 whatever years. Yeah, it's I mean, the Black Album is not arguably it is the best selling metal album, if you can call it a metal album at this point.

It was at the when it came out, it was definitely a metal album. But by today's standards, it's very rocky, not really metal at all. So it's very it's kind of like listening to something like Sleep Token.

It's very polished and very everything has its purpose.

[Speaker 2] (3:53 - 3:54)

That's true.

[Speaker 1] (3:54 - 4:56)

Yeah. So we are going to do a metal pop, goth, whatever R&B R&B every genre you can possibly compile into one song. We're going to listen to.

Yeah. And this is a short another short one. So I don't know what we're in for.

Yeah, it's not too long. So that's good. It's three and a half minutes.

No, no, we can. This might be the shortest one we're doing, I think. I think I think the last one I don't think was very long either.

But I think this one is this one is probably the shortest. So, yeah, it's got 67 million listens on Spotify, which is pretty much double the next song on that album. So it's quite popular.

So we'll we'll see. So what you're saying is it's good. Well, people seem to think it's good.

So the people seem to think people have spoken. I guess without further ado, let's just dig into this. And if you want to stop any time, just tell me.

[Speaker 2] (4:56 - 4:56)

Sure.

[Speaker 1] (4:56 - 5:31)

I'll have my finger on the button and hopefully I'll be professional about it this time. But so this is Alkaline by Sleep Token. Is it weird that I think that this sounds kind of acidic?

No. Yeah, they're going they're going for something.

[Speaker 2] (5:53 - 6:21)

Beneath. She's not acid, no alkaline. Caught between black and white.

Not quite either day or night. She's perfectly misaligned. I'm caught up in her design and how it connects to mine.

I see in a different light the objects of my desire.

[Speaker 1] (6:27 - 7:29)

OK, just pause it there a second. Yes, sir. So it's haunting.

It is very much. It's the first word that I thought of when I started hearing it. And they're definitely a band that gives you the less is more approach to their music.

Yes. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

So it's fascinating how they give you something and they let it linger in your mind. It's very minimal amount of notes. And they layer stuff over top of it.

So I like it, though. I think this is this is good. I'm a little more into this than I was with the song.

I came up with the song we did last week. Was it the offering? Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. It didn't really tickle my fancy.

It moved the needle for you. It didn't. Yeah.

I do like this. Like I mentioned, like the sort of acidic sounding notes, you know, the acid. I get the alkaline.

[Speaker 2] (7:29 - 7:30)

Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (7:30 - 7:38)

It's all about everything's trying to balance, got to balance it out. Got that perfect match in between. It's interesting.

Let's keep going.

[Speaker 2] (7:38 - 7:38)

Yep.

[Speaker 1] (7:38 - 12:07)

Let's go. That was a really cool part, man. I was.

I like sort of the falsetto in behind. Yeah. I do like the guitar in this song.

It's cool. Yeah, we're getting some. A little bit of a harder edge.

Yeah. A little more riffy. Yeah.

That's like a clock. Yeah, it's a metronome almost. Yeah.

I feel like Sleep Token needs to be listened to as an entire album. I think so. I think maybe that's.

Yeah. I feel like there's a there's a purpose to the sequencing and one song going into another. And it's like I'm, you know.

Lying, you know, trying to sleep or just laying down for the night, put in a Sleep Token album and go like front to back or one through twelve, basically. I think as a whole, there's definitely a message and a thing that they're trying to achieve. It's it's so difficult to quantify, quantifies the right word to to categorize them, like what what type of band they are.

And I guess that's the thing on the Internet. When people ask what genre is it, they're just like, it's Sleep Token. Well, I think that's sort of the purpose behind the masks stuff, too, is right there.

They're not anything. They're everything. So is it because they're now trying to blend and just give you a thing without having to be a genre?

You know, possibly. Yeah, I think so. I think they're just trying to give you a little bit of a little bit of everything like this one was probably the most edgy.

I think so. Yeah. Right.

Like it had that really cool. It was basic, but it was really cool guitar riff. Yeah.

So it opened up with with with a very haunting, dark, gloomy, you know, almost dark metal type slow vibe. And then it has elements of pop in it. It has elements of electronic, you know, when when the clicking drum track thing came in, it was very, you know, it was very electronic music like, you know.

So yeah, it's it's they're fascinating to me, man. I don't even know. Like you say, I don't know to put this.

That's the point. Maybe they don't want to be categorized. But then I was thinking while we're listening to this, what would going what would like seeing these guys in a show be like?

Yeah, because you're saying like, OK, like these songs should be listened to in a particular order. But live, they're not going to they're not going to do that, right?

[Speaker 2] (12:07 - 12:08)

They're going to that's right.

[Speaker 1] (12:08 - 12:52)

Have their top however many songs they have along the play. I don't have two hours to play 20 songs, whatever they play. Who knows?

And with whatever is going on behind them. So I think. I don't think this is meant to be listened to.

And as a whole, possibly, maybe you're right. Yeah. But.

Obviously, I'm sure each album has a theme and has every album does every album is meant to be. That's why they sequence these songs in the way they do is they're meant to be presented in this order. But then you have to live.

You can't do that. You have to break it. OK, we're going to play, you know, you're not just going to play the album like one or 12.

Like if they only had the one record.

[Speaker 2] (12:52 - 12:52)

Sure.

[Speaker 1] (12:53 - 14:00)

OK. And. But yeah, I'd just be really curious.

Maybe we'll watch something. Maybe we'll do the next song as a live clip. We can find something high quality on the YouTube.

We could we could watch a live video, something professionally filmed. I don't want to watch someone's iPhone. So it doesn't.

I try not to. I try. I steer.

I steer clear from that stuff. Let's just get this out of the way here. This is one of my biggest pet peeves in life is when somebody sits down next to you or one of your friends is like, hey, was that like the blah, blah, blah concert?

Like, check it out. Aren't they great? And they they play it from your phone.

And you're like, it sounds like horrible. You're like, I don't like it sounds like shit, man. You record it on your phone 500 feet away from the like, bro, it does not sound good.

I am sure the concert was great, but because I bet you we both are guilty of doing that in 100 percent. And like, I've done it a million times and like the next day I show the wife or whoever, I guess, was amazed. She's like, yeah, that's they're just like a guy down a bit like, yeah, that sounds really turn it up.

Yeah. Yeah. And all you hear is static.

And it's like, really, it's great, isn't it?

[Speaker 2] (14:00 - 14:00)

Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (14:00 - 14:23)

No, it's you can't recreate that. No, you try. You can't recreate the moment by showing it to somebody else from your phone.

Hey, look, this is the most amazing song ever. And it's just like, dude, it's just a song. Yeah, it's just whatever.

So I don't know. I'd be I would like to see some live footage of these guys. I'm sure it would be fascinating.

It would be entertaining too.

[Speaker 2] (14:23 - 14:23)

I think. Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (14:23 - 15:42)

And I've been good live, though, I think. I think there's there's a there's, you know, there's something to be said about going to see this type of music live, because it flows through you better than listening to it in headphones and at home, you know, and then you're here for the whole experience. So, yeah, fascinating.

Yeah. I liked it, though. I thought it was great.

It was, you know, again, it's minimalistic. There's a through line. There's not a lot of changes to any of their songs, really.

Maybe next week it will change because we're doing probably their most popular song next week. But there's there's there's a tone and a specific point that they're trying to make in the song and they just land on it and just live in that pool, as we said last week. Yeah.

I was just looking up who produced it. I have no idea. Yeah, I don't know who he is.

His name is George. George Lever. I don't know nothing.

George Lever. Yeah. He says he's notable for helping our design to universal classic records, Metal Blade and Spine Farm.

So but he's mostly known for doing sleep talk and stuff. I don't know what else he's done. But yeah, young guy.

Looks like he's young and hip, not like us old.

[Speaker 2] (15:42 - 15:42)

Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (15:43 - 17:08)

Looking at the lyrics, it's definitely interesting because he's talking about someone that he cannot categorize. Or is it something he cannot categorize? Well, he says she but she's not acid nor alkaline, caught between black and white, not quite other day or night.

She's perfectly misaligned. I'm caught up in her design and how it connects to mine. I see in a different light the object of my desire.

So it's just yeah, it's fascinating because it fits very well with what we were talking about earlier, about trying to categorize them and not being able to. So is this their mission statement song, so to speak, where it's like this is what we want to be and this is personified in this lady that they're talking about in the song. So yeah.

Interesting stuff. Yeah, I dig it though. It's good.

Yeah, it's good. I guess if I were to categorize them, I guess it would probably be like progressive metal, alternative rock, alternative metal. But it brings in so many elements of different genres as well too, right?

Yeah, I probably wouldn't go prog, but I think the alternative. It's almost too simple for prog, no offense.

[Speaker 2] (17:08 - 17:09)

It's a sleep talking.

[Speaker 1] (17:09 - 18:57)

Yeah, prog is complicated and a lot of... Shifting time signatures and whatnot and math rock. It's too much for me.

I can't. I'm not a big prog guy, but I'm all for a long song that drones on forever. But if it's got 10,000 parts to it, I'm kind of out.

It's just too much. My brain can't handle it. But anyways, I think that about does it.

Yeah, that was... I think this is my favorite one, honestly, of the four that we've listened to. I think this is one I would put on repeat for sure.

Yeah, because I haven't listened to any of them since we do them and I don't put them on. I've been following some stuff on Reddit, trying to do a little bit of reading just to understand what it's all about. But I haven't listened to any songs.

I haven't listened to anything besides us doing this because I'm trying to keep it pure. But yeah, I enjoyed this one the most. I think out of the four we've done, this is the best one so far.

Yeah, I would agree with that. It just sort of sits more in my wheelhouse. But I'm trying to evolve every day into a better person.

That's the goal. That's the goal. So that's it.

So next week we're doing the most popular song. I don't remember what it's called. You know what it's called.

The Summoning. The Summoning. I shouldn't have told you because now you're going to look it up.

No, I'm not. No, I will not. I'm not.

We only got one left. I can't screw it up now. You've gone so far this way.

And then I don't know what we're doing after next week. Yeah, we'll figure it out. We'll figure some stuff out.

So yeah. So thank you again to those who choose to listen. We do appreciate it.

Thanks. See you next week. See you next week.