Embers

This moody metal tune features a guest appearance by Deftones frontman Chino Moreno. "'Embers' is about a relationship," vocalist Randy Blythe told Rolling Stone. "I wrote all of Chino's lyrics and they deal with how loss affects interpersonal relationships, like in a family dynamic. If a family member dies, that can really twist things up. I used a sort of 'oceanic' vibe in the lyrics. I'm talking about 'I've been staring at her laying still for so long,' and I'm talking about the ocean at that point. The ocean is a metaphor for life."

Blythe explained why Lamb of God collaborated with Chino Moreno on this tune. "When the band wrote the music to that one, there were two different endings," he said. "In one, it was 'Lamb of God,' like, boring, we've done it a million times. And then Mark [Morton, guitar] wrote this other beautiful, swelling thing, and I heard it when I was still down at the beach writing my book and listening to it. I'm a huge Deftones fan, and I could hear Chino's vocals on it." "One day, during the pre-production I come in," Blythe continued, "and Mark and Josh [Wilbur, producer] are sitting there and they're like, 'What do you think about Chino doing vocals?' I'm like, 'Yes!' Chino came and he sang me the melody he had in his mind, sort of nonsense words like how we singers do. So I took some fragments I had and made it fit. He crushed it. He's Chino. There's no one that sounds like him."

The lyrics reflect Mark Morton's life experience after the death of his first born child Madalyn. He wrote them a year after his loss, shortly after his wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Morton recalled in an essay written for Noisey: "Not too long ago, I sat playing guitar on a barstool in my kitchen and within about 15 minutes came up with the outline of the music that would become the song 'Embers.'" Morton added that he "began scribbling lyrics to my wife. I described our shared pain and made references to places and events that only she would understand and recognize. I promised her that there was 'still light to find our way.' I hoped I was right." "I didn't write all of the lyrics to 'Embers,'" he continued. "Randy Blythe wrote the words to the outro section that Chino Moreno sings so beautifully (those words and that performance are absolutely magical), but the verses and choruses that I did write reflect my experience living in the aftermath of a child's death." "For me, 'Embers' is a song about hope," Morton concluded. "It's about hanging on to that last shred of light in your life and not giving up on it. It's about believing that love can overcome despair. Most of all, it's about forgiving yourself."