Eight of Swords

The Eight of Swords is a card in the tarot deck, depicting a woman, tied up and blindfolded, imprisoned by a cage of eight swords. It represents confinement and a feeling of being powerless. The song is about finding the inner strength to break free.

Huntress was a metal band led by frontwoman Jill Janus. In a Songfacts interview, she explained: "I often write on the first album about the tarot card. There are references to the Eight of Swords, which was really the way that we were discovered, so to speak. I asked the tarot cards to reveal one card that would become an epic metal song. The Eight of Swords chose us. After that, I just wrote the song with the boys."

This is the song that earned Huntress a record deal. The band invested in a video, showing Janus in the cage of swords but eventually breaking free and realizing she was her own captor the whole time. When they posted it, they got offers from various labels and chose Napalm Records, because as Janus says, "They shared our vision." The song was the first release from their debut album, Spell Eater, which deals in large part with the occult. Huntress never made it big: they released albums in 2013 and 2015, but fractured soon after. In 2018, Janus committed suicide at age 43.