Watford visionaries SikTh practically wrote the blueprint for tech metal with their multi-layered debut The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out Wait For Something Wild (2003). Its 2006 follow-up, Death Of A Dead Day served purely to cement their position as the leaders of the genre – only to then announce a six-year hiatus in 2008.
“To me, Death Of A Dead Day was the hardest album I’ve ever made lyrically and vocally,” says vocalist and lyricist Mikee Goodman. “I wasn’t in a good place when writing – although I do remember the music I was given was the best I’d ever had the pleasure of writing to.”
To mark the tenth anniversary of this landmark release, Peaceville will reissue the album on September 30.
Here, Mikee gives us a track-by-track guide…
Bland Street Bloom
“This song was inspired by the state of the English high street. Chain stores throughout lacking in variety and invention. Dwelling in a grey mundane place. It’s also about the small town mindset – people who would rather be told what to think than think for themselves – look outside the bubble society dwells in. ‘Empty coal into the fruit bowl, become a machine just one of the people’ is one of my favourite lines. It pretty much sums up what I was trying to say.”
Flogging The Horses
“This song is about territorial disputes, war-mongering and manipulating the masses by any means. Using metaphors, I tried to conjure such imagery of wars out in deserts and the inevitable blood spilt. It’s also about how we’re all just humans: ‘Let apes roam free, let people be, what they are and are, 9 to 5 isn’t the same in the wild…’”
Way Beyond The Fond Old River
“Many beings in this life only want to see what they can touch. They don’t want to open their mind or their eyes to any other possibilities. ‘While the moral mans making trees from the gathered leaves’ is my favourite line. It’s a life lesson. Many of us learn as we live.”
Summer Rain
“Everything was spinning so fast back then. I met so many magical beings and was affected deeply by some. This song was inspired by a lady I knew. I put her on a pedestal which was unfair. I essentially set myself up for a fall. But I remember some of those beautiful nights, not being able to get someone out of my mind.”
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Sanguine Seas of Bigotry
“This song was an anti-hate and anti-war song. Isn’t it strange how far we’ve evolved as humans and we’re still seeing so much hurt and hatred throughout the world? Isn’t it amazing how much money is spent on military and weapons in general yet there are millions living in poverty all over the world? Where’s the humanity there? This song was an instant reply to how certain politicians were blatantly manipulating people for the view to go to war.”
Mermaid Slur
“Mermaid Slur is pretty abstract. It’s another song questioning what we as humans are doing in this world – our existence itself and our domestication. It’s also a comment on the destruction of nature and the acceptance that we’re at the mercy of it.”
When The Moment’s Gone
“A long distance romance can be very hard and really tough when you don’t know if you’ll ever see the being your heart aches for again. Reading these words back, I could see how it goes into a really emotional panic, freaking out over the situation. It was pretty much how I felt back then.”
Part Of The Friction
“‘Yes no yes no maybe no, all your gonna hear in this world that rocks and rolls…’ The music industry has pretty much taken a full nosedive since this song was written; it was pretty much on its way when I was writing these words. Anyway, it was written to give a bit of realism of the industry, how everything is in limbo and especially with SikTh back in the day. We were always told we were going to do tours around the world. Tour with this or that band. When it didn’t happen, it was disappointing. There are certain people who can lie to your face with such ease, this upsets me a lot too. SikTh and many other bands blocked out the negatives when we could with beer, which doesn’t work either.”
Where Do We Fall?
“This song has one of my favourite lines: ‘On top of the world in a plastic ashtray’. It’s about when you’re feeling great and things seem to be going well, yet you’re still so fragile that ash could fall and you could drop back to the bottom at any moment.”
Another Sinking Ship
“‘Liars! Shape my frown’ is pretty much spot on. The lyric ‘television lamb’ was a commentary on what was happening in the world at that moment. People being manipulated and blindly following. But I also felt this in my personal life. There were certain characters I’d prefer to be away from back then. As a younger musician, many people would surround you. It was a pretty hardcore place to be. ‘Swamped in fear’ refers to the media output I was seeing and hearing back then. I agree with Bill Hicks’ view on the news. So negative, it shapes such a negative world when we are missing such beauty. There is so much good in this world, it should be talked about more. Why people seem to want to focus on negatives always and destroy each other, I do not know. I actually cut watching the news out of my life for many years. I rarely look at it these days. I find a much more positive place away from it usually. But with the amount of information we get on the Internet nowadays, you’re always hit with what is happening with at least a headline.”
As The Earth Spins Round
“This is another peace song. ‘Why are we wondering, why are we slaughtering, who is the alien?. It’s asking us as humans, why are we all killing each other? Who has the right to tag another human as an alien? The fact is humans have fought over land forever: ‘as the earth spins round, we’re all wailing on the ground! What for?’ I like this primal line.”
SikTh will re-release Death Of A Dead Day on September 30 through Peaceville.
