Track By Tracks: This I Owe - Alchemists (2025)

1. Prologue:

The prologue is here to set the vibe of the album. The main character sits in a dark room, losing their mind as their thoughts take over. We can clearly see the guilt and pain that they are experiencing, trying to find out what went so wrong and why they are in that situation

2. Equinox:

This is a narration song. It describes the world through the lenses of the album, where whatever may or may not be done by a person won’t be enough to change the inevitable. It portrays the day (light/happiness) and the night (darkness/sadness) as Gods, fighting each other in a never-ending battle, yet still coexisting, to keep the balance in the world. There is no day without the night, as there is no happiness without glimpses of sadness. That is the way of the world, how it’s been and how it will always be.

This song, along with Queen of Hearts, predates the rest and was written at the very beginning of the band. It has been with us ever since.

3. Sharks:

Here, the main character is lost in thought. It’s an inner dialogue with themselves. This is where the person experiencing a shortcoming starts getting angry at the world around them, because they cannot grasp how they ended up in the situation and blame the world for it.

4. Disdain:

This song is from the perspective of the narrator. They explain to our dear character that it’s not enough for someone to dream about a better future if they aren’t willing to work for it, and that if you have the audacity to use every circumstance to your own benefit, that will eventually lead to a life of misery and loneliness. The narrator tries to explain to the protagonist that the world isn’t at fault for the decisions they made willingly.

This was the last song written for the album. We had already finalized the other 8 songs (plus intro), for the most part at least, but we still wanted another song for the album to feel complete. Thus, Disdain came to be, born within a single practice session. Most of our songs were written by first jamming and then revising the results into a complete song, but this one really felt like it sprang out of nowhere.

5. Queen of Hearts:

During the song’s intro, we listen to our main character thinking out loud. They are wondering why they are feeling the way that they do. They seem to have everything in life, yet they are so miserable and alone. In the main song, the album’s pivotal character, Queen of Hearts, is revealed. The narrator explains that without her, life would be vain, and we would be lost. She lives inside all of us. We may not know her, but she’s the power that keeps our minds at ease. Some call her “God”, some call her “Karma”, some call her “destiny”, but we call her Isobel.

As we stated in Equinox’s description, this song is one of the “oldies”. It is the first song we recorded, twice, actually. It has a special place in the album, being both the musical starting point while also being the narrative anchor.

6. Isobel:

The name Isobel is of Hebrew origin (the Hebrew version of Elisabeth), and it means “God’s promise”. For us, it symbolizes a promise of faith (as in hope). At this point, our main character realized that they had lost their faith in life. They reach out to Isobel in a monologue, as if she’s real, an old friend who has abandoned them. They are angry at her for leaving them to deal with the harsh reality of life. “Painfully sober” is a phrase that depicts that emotion. Hope is like a drug, and it’s painful for us to experience life without having hope.

Whereas Queen of Hearts was the core of the album, this song is its centerpiece. It was both an emotional point in the narrative and a birthing ground for new musical ideas. Writing Isobel was a pivotal point in our path to completing this album.

7. Feelings to dust:

Here, our character starts trying to cope with the realization that they have lost hope. They are trying to get back up and face life in a whole new light. We clearly see that the character is willing to bury their emotions to regain some control over the circumstances. They think that by doing so, they will prove to the outside world and to themselves that they still stand strong, no matter what. This song, as far as we can tell, is the reason the album is often labelled as prog. While we do not necessarily agree that the album, at least in its entirety, belongs to that genre, it was still interesting to venture outside of the comfortable world of 4/4, even if just for a bit.

8. Nightmare:

Our main character’s inner voices are trying to fill our character’s mind with second thoughts, in the form of lucid dreaming. The character wakes up from their sleep, anxious about what lies ahead, as they will finally have to change their ways and let go of their past. They feel like an impostor, thinking that everyone around them will judge them for whatever they may have done wrong, while in fact the only judge was themselves.

Nightmare is special in the sense that it was the first of the second wave of songs (anything except Equinox and QoH). It was this song that redefined the band’s sound and led us to follow a more “metal” path. It was also recorded along with the second version of Queen of Hearts, as a single.

9. Echo Chambers:

Finally, our character gets their thoughts together. They reminisce about their past actions, and it’s clearer than ever that the reason for their ending up in this situation was the fact that they always trusted the wrong people and were misled into always doing what others said was “right”. Their inner voice was, in fact, expressing how others made our protagonist feel as a person. All this time, they were lacking character; that’s why when sadness came and they were left alone, they didn’t know how they were supposed to react. This is a song about inner growth.

10. Solstice:

The last song, our epilogue, is a letter written by our dear protagonist. They are finally at peace with how things ended up. Isobel (their faith and hope) is gone, but that’s okay. Our protagonist finally accepts that loss, in the form of accepting the situation as it is. They are not happy, they’re quite sad to be exact. But it’s okay, because sadness is a part of life. This song is a farewell to Isobel and to life as they know it. They are now ready to face the next chapter, whatever it may be.

One thing we think is worth noting about this track is that the vocals were done in one take!