Songfacts®:

• Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine explained the track's meaning:
  
  "The song is about how it is here with almost every single politician. It talks about how I've seen the world change in the [56] years that I've been alive. I guess the double entendre came from watching a lot of these politicians, you just know when they're asked a question the answer is such spin, somebody that doesn't know s--t is gonna go, 'Oh, I get it,' because they don't wanna say, 'I have no idea what he just said.'
  
  But for me, since I watch a lot of political pundits to try to get inspiration for songs, I see when people are spinning stuff. Then you've got John Kerry - his wife is the heir to Heinz Ketchup over here, so that dude's a billionaire. He don't need to be working! But then he comes out and says the Paris shooters should have been able to be justified for what they did like at Charlie Hebdo, and the world went nuts on him and then he back-pedalled it, and to me that's lying in state."
• The song is actually the second part of the three-minute acoustic and electric instrumental "Conquer Or Die." Mustaine explained:
  
  "These two parts were supposed to be sequenced together. So it goes 'Conquer Or Die... Lying In State'. And the 'Lying In State' part is a double entendre which I'm pretty familiar with doing. The 'lying in state' was a place where you... Once you die, you're lying in state for all to see. Or, right now, with people who are still upright, standing by the podium, lying in a position of state."
• The song's music video was filmed in 2017 fall with Brazilian director Leo Liberti during Megadeth's South American tour. It features Megadeth's iconic mascot Vic Rattlehead hunting down members of what appears to be a surrealist cult. The sword he wields is etched with the phrase "Rust in Peace," referring to Megadeth's 1990 album.