Gnarlwound from Kindlebone by Hragul

# About This Track: Gnarlwound

Smoke-clogged lungs struggle to form the ritual words as we recorded this dirge inside the skeletal ribcage of our cave sanctuary. The track emerged during three nights of fasting after we lost a member of our tribe to the winter. Blood memory flows through "Gnarlwound" like sap from a wounded tree—raw, viscous, and impossible to wash away.

We carved actual patterns into oak during the recording, microphones catching the splintering wood and our fingers bleeding into the grain. Those cracking sounds beneath the percussion? Real bone striking stone. The female keening that joins midway wasn't planned—Maera simply stepped forward from the shadows, throat-singing grief in ancestral tones none of us recognized yet all somehow understood.

"Gnarlwound" represents our most ambitious collision of ceremonial drone and primal fury. The guttural bellows meet Tuvan-inspired harmonics while beneath it all, shield-drums maintain the heartbeat of those departed. We deliberately detuned everything to emulate the disorientation of loss, letting strings vibrate loosely like final breaths.

When we play this live, the tribe encircles a mound of earth, each member carving a symbol before we begin. The track demands this ritual—this remembrance. The final horn calls were captured at dawn, echoing across the valley as if searching for those who will never answer.

From bone to blood, we summon forgotten tongues. Raw throats chant in proto-speech while shields crash against primal drumbeats. Not music—a ritual hunt. Join our clay-smeared tribe under torchlight as we howl what your ancestors knew before words.