(written by Islander)
Once again, and for the third time since mid-June, we’re connecting you to the powerful music and words of the Texas-based black metal band Haintgrove.
The first occasion concerned the project’s debut single, “Starless Passage“, which served as the opening chapter to a larger concept centered on the experiences of enslaved Africans in the colonial South, a concept that approaches the subject “through atmosphere, landscape, memory, and emotional perspective”.
The second occasion, in August, was our premiere of Haintgrove’s second single, “I Dream in a Tongue I Cannot Speak“, along with a beautiful yet desolate video that Haintgrove filmed along the coast of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
And now we’re premiering a third song, “Kingdoms in the Thicket“, which sheds more light on Haintgrove’s inspirations, and specifically the role that the Lowcountry plays in those inspirations.
Here is an extensive statement Haintgrove provided us regarding the song we’re premiering today, which you should read in full:
The song is inspired by maroon communities that existed within the swamps and wilderness of the American South, particularly the Carolina Lowcountry. People who escaped enslavement sometimes disappeared into terrain that was extremely difficult for outsiders to navigate, forming hidden settlements and communities beyond the immediate reach of plantations and patrols.
Rather than telling that history from a straightforward human perspective, “Kingdoms in the Thicket” treats the swamp itself as a witness. The land has seen blood, iron, pursuit, escape, and generations of people moving through it.
The “kingdoms” in the title aren’t meant to suggest some grand victory or romanticized freedom. These were lives lived under constant threat. The song is more about hidden sovereignty, survival, and presence – people carving out spaces where they could exist beyond the world that claimed ownership over them, even if that existence was fragile.
Musically and lyrically, I wanted the track to feel somber but resilient. There’s pride in it, but not triumph. The swamp protects, conceals, remembers, and ultimately outlives everyone moving through it.
I chose South Carolina as the geographical focus of this first Haintgrove album, and as the starting point for the project more broadly, because of my own deep family roots there. The history, landscape, and memory of the region are not distant subjects to me; they form part of the ground from which Haintgrove grew.
Gulp some air before listening to the song because it doesn’t give you a moment to breathe before Haintgrove discharges urgently hammering beats and a frantically whirling guitar harmony, part low and part high in its sound, part fierce and part desperate in its mood.
As scorching screams erupt, the dual-guitar melody changes, still very fleet of finger but perhaps even fierier. The riffing continues to change around nimble bass-lines and pulse-pounding drums that gallop, blast, and rock. The guitars throb and whirl, thrash and strobe, become grim and grieve, and vibrantly escalate.
Choking gutturals briefly trade off with those unhinged screams, harshly expressing the lyrical poetry. But while the lyrics are very much worth a reader’s time (we’re including them at the very end of this article), this is very much a riff-driven song. They and the melodies are its electrifying centerpiece.
We’ll continue following Haintgrove’s music leading up to the release of the project’s debut album, which has now been set for October 23rd, and you should follow them too — at the locations linked below. (All of the singles are available at Bandcamp with a “name your price” option.)
After the links, we’ve also included the remarkable lyrics to the song we’ve just premiered.
https://linktr.ee/haintgrove
https://haintgrove.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/haintgrove
“KINGDOMS IN THE THICKET” — LYRICS
I am the blackwater
I linger in all that grows
Beneath my canopy
None go undetected
I have tasted blood
Long before their coming
I’ve felt weight of iron
I watched the shackles rust
They vanished into my thicket
voices swallowed by my reeds
Forms bent into my twisted limbs
Their silence moved within my roots
Fire breathes low beneath my moss
Drums echo between my leaves
Voices concealed within my bark
Life grows beyond sight
High in my treetops
They saw the threat coming
Drums sounded the warning
They silenced the fire
They slipped through the water
Through winding paths
Toward hidden hammocks
Beyond intruders’ sight
I unmake the paths of those in pursuit
They drag their iron through my roots
Silence swallows warning as my fog swallows their light
Black water shifts without wind
Twisted limbs divide their ranks into the night
I am the drifting mist
Flowing through the flooded cane
Silence lingers
Where shallow waters wander
Old tongues whisper
through my hanging veils
Beyond the mirrored surface
Watching eyes remain