Decay

The lead single for Black Out the Sun, this was one of the final songs recorded for the album. Its origins were in a riff left over from sessions for Sevendust's previous disc, 2010's Cold Day Memory. In a Songfacts interview with lead singer Lajon Witherspoon, he explained: "We listened to it, and it was so easy for us to record, because we were in the studio from 12 noon to 12 midnight, and we had two rooms where we could jam. And just by listening to it for a few minutes, we were able to get on the instruments and we started jamming it. And then 'Decay' came out. That was one of the last songs we wrote on the album, but it turned out to be the first single. We couldn't believe it. It was like, wow, that's weird. But cool."

Revolver magazine asked the band about the songwriting approach for Black Out The Sun. Guitarist Clint Lowery replied: "It usually comes from an idea or a riff that John or I start. It's us coming up with beats and constructing the skeletal idea of the song from there. Then we'd get the band together to play it with everyone. By that point we'd start arranging it, and vocals are the last thing." Added guitarist John Connolly: "There was definitely no shortage of ideas. For this record, we had a writing area behind the live drums in the studio. Whenever someone was in the studio working on parts, any number of us would gather in this writing station and map things out right there on the spot. This was one of those albums where on Monday 'Decay' didn't exist and by the end of Tuesday night, it was there."

Sevendust guitarist John Connolly recalled to Jam Magazine how after finishing up the mixing stages on Black Out, the band thought it was completed. However, someone pulled out the tape of this song's demo from a backlog of the music they had and played it. "We all heard it and thought, 'What's that?'," remembered Connolly. "This riff on there really kicked our ass, so collectively we thought it would probably take us 30 minutes to get the whole song worked out. So we went ahead and got the music going then wrote lyrics to it. We figured the tune would at least be a good B-side tune, or maybe even a bonus track on the CD. Halfway through the recording of the vocals, Lajon (Witherspoon, vocals) is just smiling like crazy. I asked him what's up, and he said, "This song is a monster!" That was one of those "stop the presses" moments. I had been thinking the very same thing that the tune should be a single on our album."