What even is this? (very weird content)

Bucket

(and I know what people will say - I don't want to hear if you think it's shit or not, I am aware it's unlikely to appeal to many)



SikTh are a metal band... predominantly straddling hardcore/metalcore and progressive metal, I suppose, if labels mean anything to anyone. I prefer to think of them as a cross between System of a Down, the Dillinger Escape Plan and something like Atheist. 

Having taken the above into account, I have absolutely no frame of reference for that song. It doesn't really sound like anything else on the album, or anything else they've ever done since - they've done similar long, melancholic songs like this, but never anything this... unhinged. This really is unhinged.

I don't get what Mikee Goodman is really going for vocally, other than just shrieking his guts up in the most bizarre ways he possibly can. He has an incredible voice, not in the same way as a conventional singer but more in terms of what he can do with his voice, and his total lack of inhibitions in making the weirdest noises imaginable. I've said before - he's like a voice actor, fronting a metal band. In a kind of similar way to Mike Patton, but I think their styles are barely comparable to be honest. I don't know where Mikee's style comes from, who his influences could have been, what he's trying to achieve... other than convey a psychotic mental breakdown? Not the furthest possibility from my mind. I want to understand it though.

Even the music is weird - it's great, but it's far removed from the rest of the album. All I know is that in the context of the album, this track works - it really, really works. I listened to it in the car on the way home earlier and it never fails to make my hair stand on end. I don't even know why I'm posting this - part of it is just a continued astonishment at it, part is genuinely wondering if anyone else can help provide a frame of reference for it so I can try to understand it a bit better.

Anyone, any idea?

boogieman

Why the need to understand it? You either like it or you don't. It does something for you emotionally or mentally, or not. Does music really need to be analysed, justified or given a reason to exist? You could argue that it's like any artform; if it provokes a reaction it's done its job. 

Personally I think it's a curious piece of music and not necessarily in a good way. He certainly has a strong and very versatile voice. Would I listen to it more than once though? Nope.
I've seen SikTH as a support band (can't remember who they were supporting). I found their music impenetrable, too weird and ungainly for my taste. Seems plenty of people like them though, so what do I know?

Bucket

@boogieman No need, but when a piece of music interests me this much I usually feel the need to try and find out more about it, and understand it better.

Bucket

@boogieman This is among the less weird-sounding SikTh songs - most, in fact I think all, of the vocals are done by Justin Hill, the band's (former) other vocalist, who has a far more "normal" modern rock/metal voice. It's fairly chilled, although even their less crazy stuff is still full of strange chord changes that almost remind of jazz fusion. The rhythm isn't too all over the place in this one though, so it feels a bit less obnoxious and jarring than their stuff can to the uninitiated.




If it came down to it, though, I'd rather listen to Can't We All Dream?, which is definitely the craziest and most out-there thing they've ever recorded. Mikee's voice is a far more important part of the band's sound, I think. Justin left recently and was replaced, but I think if Mikee left they'd be finished - short of hiring a flat-out impersonator, there is no-one who can fill those shoes.

EricTheWeary

Listening to the track in the OP the vibe reminds me a bit of some post punk/ goth stuff like Bauhaus or The Leather Nun in their more out their moments although that 'can't we all dream' vocal reminds me of some of the spoken stuff off Bat Out of Hell oddly enough! I'm struggling to think of specific examples although some of the stuff off In the Flat Field by Bauhaus maybe. Anyway, I'll throw this in. Not really saying it sounds like it but to me it would sit on the same gothic playlist ( sort of depressed teenager with low blood sugar type playlist maybe)

bingefeller

I don't think it's all that weird to be honest.  It sounds as though it's influenced by bands like Mr Bungle, Fantomas, and Deftones.  Sort of avant garde / experimental rock sounding.  

Sporky

bingefeller said:

influenced by bands like Mr Bungle 

I was thinking those dodgy Faith No More album tracks, but same difference.

Deijavoo

Great band. 

UnclePsychosis

bingefeller said:

I don't think it's all that weird to be honest.  It sounds as though it's influenced by bands like Mr Bungle, Fantomas, and Deftones.  Sort of avant garde / experimental rock sounding.  

+1. 

Puts me in mind of a lot of those post-punk, gothy bands too. 

equalsql

It reminds me of of this..

BloodEagle

Its just a metal band trying and failing to be weird, move along, nothing to see here

PolarityMan

Love that song. Sat next to the cover of tupelo and when will the forest speak I don't think it's unusually out of context though.

I much prefer this side of sikth than the techy stuff