#treeflayer

↑ Give it a listen if you haven't already!

The (extremely Will Byers-coded) song begins with this iconic opener:

Mike's campaign foreshadowed Will's fate: the demogorgon was "coming" for him the entire time.

And it indeed appeared through the trees, the woods on Mirkwood to be exact.

Will Byers is our protagonist here: running from the demon or metaphorical hounds that appear through the trees.

In D&D "Demogorgon" is a demon prince, which took inspiration from Greek and Christian mythology: both regard Demogorgon as a demonic being from the Underworld (or hell).

Is the Upside Down not the underworld?

This demon chased Will Byers before taking him to the Underworld — aka the Upside Down. Could this represent corruption or "divine" punishment?

Why drag Will Byers of all people down to "hell"?

Ah, there it is. Hounds Of Love is about... well, love. The protagonist is running from a pack of hounds, which represent her fear of love.

Perhaps the "Dart represents homosexuality" thesis was ahead of its time. D'Artagnan was just a demogorgon, after all.

Will Byers was being chased by a demon which represented his love, and by extension, his homosexuality.

All this mention of trees isn't for nothing, either.

Will Byers appears to closely inspect a tree which may trigger a memory of the Upside Down. Vecna's new form has him covered in twisted vines. Not to mention the shot of Will seemingly trapped by thorny vines.

Is he... inside the tree? Is this a tree-flayer?

By the end of the song, the protagonist realizes that her initial instict to run from love is wrong.

In the first chorus, she asks her lover to throw her shoes into the lake so she'll stop running. In the final chorus, she asks her lover to join her on the water.

She's tired of running: she's embraced her need for love and the lake represents being immersed or submerged in it. She's "taking the plunge" as it were.

More hints to water imagery being important, and possibly loverslakegate. We know that like the protagonist of this song, Will is certainly going to be submerged in water at some point this season.

Personally, I'm very attached to the speculation that this song will appear in s5 (Lucas still has Max's Hounds Of Love album casette tape).

Mixtapes were typically made using dual casette decks: recording songs from another casette tape onto a blank tape.