Songfacts®:

• Winter Kills was the first DevilDriver album released on Napalm Records. Switching labels was a big step for the band, whose first five albums were released on Roadrunner Records. This song finds lead singer Dez Fafara summoning up the energy and confidence to move forward with vigor.
  
  "That is definitely a song about life and getting you through life," he said in our interview. "Do you have the appetite - the expectations - to suffice? Meaning, if you want to go for something in life, don't think you're going to get there by going at half-ass. You're going to have to throw yourself in the fire and see if you can live up to the flame."
• Dez Fafara wrote the word "suffice" into the lyric ("The expectations to suffice") after someone said it when the band was hanging out in the back lounge of their tour bus. Fafara says he's always on the lookout for new words and phrases, and takes pride in not repeating them in different songs. So on other DevilDriver tracks, another word will have to suffice.