Kyle Stibbs - The Reaper, The Butcher, The Boy

Rising in prominence from viral moments on TikTok, Kyle Stibbs releases his newest macabre indie-folk story titled “The Reaper, The Butcher, The Boy”.

Similar to “Die For Me” and “A Good Thing”, Kyle Stibbs’s newest song has soft vocals detailing emotional experiences through jarring metaphors. Like other songs in his discography, the music goes from jaw-hitting catchy dark lyrics to bittersweet vulnerability.

Promoted prior to release via tik tok, one snippet of this song gathered 950k views and 200k interactions. The viral moment was the beginning of the song where a young boy is sold to a butcher, as casually as a pig would be sold.

Continuing on in the story, the boy is comforted by the butcher, despite the pain happening. Trusting enough for the boy to reveal his strength and insecurities before his slaughter. The boy’s death transitions to the second half of the song with the reaper.

Again the reaper comforts the boy. However just like the butcher, hurting the boy during the process, or as Kyle Stibbs wrote: “Put my heart in to his cloak. And said we’ll find this a new home. But he still bought a steak for the road.”

Onward in the song, the reaper and the boy look throughout the world to find an animal to willing to take his heart in for the boy’s rebirth. No animal would take in the boy’s soul, all of them unwilling to bear his pain.

Ending before the listener can feel ready to let go and grieve the boy, the reaper fulfills it’s promise of rebirth by taking the boy’s heart into the reaper’s self.

Listening to Kyle Stibbs music is like to getting to know a friend over time, letting guards down to show true colors, and the friendship fading slowly. The difference is this emotional experience happens with in two minutes instead of a lifetime.