“Prana Ferox” is about a tub of whiskey that’s both a metaphor and a catalyst for bad things to come.

Album: Sweden (1995)
Track: “Prana Ferox”

It could be a drinking song, but most of them could be drinking songs. John Darnielle says “Prana Ferox” is “about alcohol,” and it certainly follows a narrator checking on a home distilling project. While they peer into a vat of whiskey, their lover is upstairs “with [your] head against the sink // trying to cool down // trying to cool down.” The song dissolves into chaotic guitar as the narrator ponders the disparity between the “new life” in the vat of sour mash and their own situation.

Is it a drinking song? Not really, at least not in the way most bands would write one. No one drinks anything and the alcohol itself hasn’t even arrived yet. That doesn’t mean the alcohol doesn’t explain something about the relationship. There’s nothing inherently troubling about a couple making whiskey in their basement, but you can hear in John Darnielle’s wailing final verse that these two are anxious for this project to complete.

“Prana” means “life force” and “ferox” means “savage,” very roughly. “Prana Ferox” drops us in the middle of another troubled relationship, but also opens with an inspirational sample from what sounds like a meditation tape. The sample promises us we’ll be okay today. It’s especially relevant for these two, since they probably will be okay today. The narrator delivers “I know you don’t believe me, but I could hear you breathing” with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Alcohol serves as a temporary solution for many doomed Mountain Goats couples, but rarely is it this direct. We know as an audience that it is all for naught, but you do get the sense that there are still desperate last-ditch attempts to come in the drunken nights that tub will enable.