Black Honey (song)

"Black Honey" was one of the first songs Thrice wrote following their reunion in 2015.[5] Bassist Eddie Breckenridge stated that the riff was originally written by Teppei Teranishi on an acoustic guitar before the band decided to make it into a "big rock song."[6]

Lars Gotrich of NPR compared the song to "late-period Cave In, with Kensrue channeling the soulful rasp of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell more than ever."[7]

Lyrically, the song tells of a man swinging his hand through a swarm of bees and being stung in return, stopping at nothing in his pursuit of honey. Lead singer and lyricist Dustin Kensrue stated in an interview with NPR that "the song spawned from an image that popped into my head: someone continually swatting at a swarm of bees to get their honey, but somehow not understanding why they would sting back in return."[7] In a line left out of the interview, Kensrue said, "It seemed a fitting metaphor for much of U.S. foreign policy.”[5]

Kensrue expanded on his thoughts in Vagrant Records' official biography of the band, declaring, "We keep doing the same things and expecting to get something good out of it. We’ve built problem on problem on problem, and now we find ourselves with ISIS and people are like—maybe we’ll do more of the same! It hasn’t worked yet: so maybe we need more of holistic approach to what we’re doing.”[3]

The song has been compared to previous and contemporary Thrice songs with similar political messages, such as "The Sky is Falling" from The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV (2007) and "Death From Above" from To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere (2016), both of which deal with drone strikes in the Middle East, as well as "Blood on the Sand".[8]

The music video for "Black Honey" was released on May 17, 2016.[9] Directed by Y2K, a media group consisting of Jason Lester and Severiano Ramirez, and produced by Lester, the video depicts a boy (played by Jesse James Baldwin) sitting in the passenger seat of a car on a road trip. Various people are seen driving the car, including the members of Thrice and the boy's mother (played by Jennifer Lee Laks). The boy steps out of the car and into a field, where he is possessed by the sun and evaporates. Black honey is seen dripping from the leaves and fruits.[10] With over 28 million views, it is Thrice's most viewed music video.

"Black Honey" was released to alternative rock and active rock radio formats on May 17, 2016.[11] The song peaked at No. 11 on Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, their biggest hit to date on any radio format.[4] "Black Honey" was featured on WWE's Money in the Bank ladder match on June 19, 2016.[12] South African post-grunge band Seether covered "Black Honey" for SiriusXM.[13]