Songfacts®:

• This is the sixth track and first single from American heavy metal band Demon Hunter's sixth album, True Defiance. "'Someone To Hate' feels like a perfect first-glimpse at the new record," Demon Hunter frontman Ryan Clark said in a statement. "At one point we were even debating on it being the album opener. It's definitely a thrash song, but with a Demon Hunter twist. I think fans will dig it because it has a lot of classic DH elements, but it really pushes each of those elements to the max. It's fast, it's mean, it's unapologetic… but of course, it has moments of melody as well."
• "Someone To Hate" was the original title for "Collapsing," the lead single from Demon Hunter's previous album, The World Is A Thorn. There is also an original version of this song with some of the final lyrics on it, where all the verses were screaming vocals, which was demoed around the same time. After completing the record, the band returned to the studio to revise the demo. Clark rewrote the verses and pre-chorus, and decided that he should do melodic singing vocals throughout the entire song. When writing for True Defiance, Clark came back to the lyrics and title for this song as he still liked them and didn't want them to go to waste. He told AntiMusic that he ended up "rewriting the bulk of them, but the general idea is still there."
• Clark explained the song's meaning to AntiMusic: "The lyrics to the song speak about the idea of being hated by those that oppose my world view, and how being someone to hate isn't something I'll necessarily shy away from, if it's for the things I believe in whole-heartedly. In this scene, if you aren't making someone upset, you're not saying much of anything."
• The line "Heart is cold" at the top of the chorus was a last minute addition. Clark explained to AntiMusic: "I felt that the vocals came in too late in the chorus, so a short line tagged onto the beginning was the perfect remedy."
• Clark told AntiMusic about Patrick Judge's guitar solo: "When we were getting ready to record, I showed Patrick an At The Gates solo and said, 'Hear that? That little stutter effect? I want that in a solo!' I assumed it was a pedal effect, and Patrick said, 'No, that's him tapping the whammy bar really fast.' I was like, 'Seriously?' And he was right. You can hear what I'm referring to right in the middle of this solo. It's an awesome little detail."
• The working title for the song's demo was, "Slay."