Cross to Bear

This pandemonium inducing end-of-world soundtrack is the most uncompromising song on Extremist. Ryan Clark commented to Decibel magazine: "Not an ounce of melodic singing. It follows the same kind of style as songs like 'Storm The Gates Of Hell, 'The World Is A Thorn' and 'Crucifix,' which are about as fast and heavy as you'll find on any of our albums. And although we've often started records out with a song like this, to essentially "come out swinging," it felt best to reach this point later on this record."

Clark rewrote the bulk of the lyrics for the song around three times before he was satisfied with them. He said: "I had the chorus first, and I knew I'd be shaping the rest of the lyrics around that, but I found it hard to say what I was trying to say. In the end, I think it all works."

Clark liked so much the small guitar walk-down, which happens at the top of the bridge (it's derived from the pre-chorus riff), that he ended up building an outro from it. He said: "It has a nasty Pantera-sounding drive that I just felt we had to emphasize, so we essentially took this repetition, and built it bigger and bigger as it progresses."