Album: Essential Tremors (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Most listeners heard this song in a Coors Light commercial. Viewed with that vapid marketing imagery and taken purely on value of its chorus, "Sweat Shock" can easily be misunderstood as a candidate for the next pump-up Jock Rock compilation album. Thing is, the lyrics seem to suggest it's actually about black magic.

    The second-to-last line of the song goes, "I've come to bear the lower keys of Solomon." This is almost certainly a reference to The Lesser Key of Solomon, a 17th century grimoire (basically a spell book) on demonology.

    The rest of the lyrics support this theme:

    "Come and press our tongues now to the words no man should speak"
    "Black candles are burning"

    Also that mysterious line, "And you're riding on science and you're using time to bind" - The Lesser Key discusses binding demons.
  • Walston has frequently spoken about his upbringing in Cleveland, Tennessee, a town he describes as being grounded in traditional Christianity. His song "Heavy Balls" discusses this childhood. He learned to play piano from watching his grandmother play gospel.

    So, whether or not Walston is actually endorsing occultism in "Sweat Shock" is unclear, but what is very clear is that the song's got more going on than just pitching beer or exercise equipment.

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