Back From The Dead

Album: Back From The Dead (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Back From The Dead" finds Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale testifying to surviving and overcoming mental health issues. She uses Christian resurrection imagery to describe how she broke free from the depression that had been dogging her.

    Back from the dead alive!
    Hell couldn't hold me
    Back from the other side!
    Up from the dirt I rise


    Released on August 18, 2021 as Halestorm's first new song since their 2018 Vicious album, Hale said: "I wanted to give myself and the world a hard rock song we could shout out loud as the gates opened again."
  • Lzzy Hale wrote the song with Scott Stevens, who also worked on Halestorm's "Apocalyptic" and "Amen." Regarding its lyrical content, Hale said: "I was on the edge of this world getting completely lost in oblivion, but even though it was the harder of two choices, I didn't just let the darkness and depression in my mind dig me an early grave. I didn't just sit and let it take me."

    Hale added that she hopes the song will remind its listeners of their strength individually and that they're not alone.
  • Nick Raskulinecz, the producer of Vicious, co-produced the song with Scott Stevens.
  • Dustin Haney (Noah Cyrus, Jameson Rodgers) directed the video, which finds Lzzy Hale and co. in a morgue and cemetery somewhere between life and death.
  • Halestorm played "Back From The Dead" live for the first time on August 31, 2021 when they performed it at the 2021 New York State Fair as part of the Chevrolet Music Festival in Syracuse, New York.
  • "Back From The Dead" is the opening song and title track of Halestorm's fifth studio album. The band started writing the record about three months before the COVID pandemic. Unable to perform and tour because of the lockdown, Lzzy Hale fell into a dark place. Back From The Dead is the story of Hale carving herself out of that abyss. "It is a journey of navigating mental health, debauchery, survival, redemption, rediscovery, and still maintaining faith in humanity," she said.
  • When Halestorm came up with "Back From The Dead," they felt the phrase summed up what the band wanted to say once they returned to the stage, so they used it as the working title for the album while trying to come up with something more clever. They ended up with a list of 60 titles, none of which they liked, so ended up sticking with "Back From The Dead."

    "This entire album is like that. It is a journey of rediscovery of either yourself or what the world means to you, what humanity means to you," Hale told Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3. "It's also [about] survival," she added. "There's a lot of mental health issues that I go through on this as well. But basically, it's a true reflection of that journey that we all went through. And not just we as the world but all of us personally in the band."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Francis Rossi of Status Quo

Francis Rossi of Status QuoSongwriter Interviews

Doubt led to drive for Francis, who still isn't sure why one of Status Quo's biggest hits is so beloved.

Rick Springfield

Rick SpringfieldSongwriter Interviews

Rick has a surprising dark side, a strong feminine side and, in a certain TV show, a naked backside. But he still hasn't found Jessie's Girl.

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors Examined

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors ExaminedSong Writing

Doors expert Jim Cherry, author of The Doors Examined, talks about some of their defining songs and exposes some Jim Morrison myths.

Weezer

WeezerFact or Fiction

Did Rivers Cuomo grow up on a commune? Why did they name their albums after colors? See how well you know your Weezer in this Fact or Fiction.

Second Wind Songs

Second Wind SongsSong Writing

Some songs get a second life when they find a new audience through a movie, commercial, TV show, or even the Internet.