Songfacts®:

• This ominous, riff-driven tune is the first fully formed track on Attention Attention. Vocalist Brent Smith explained to Billboard the song is about being afraid:
  
  "'Devil' is about being terrified of not only yourself, in some respects, but the world around you, and understanding that there are so many things and so many different situations and people and places and atmospheres and exposure that human beings are put in front of on a daily basis, [and] the world can be a really difficult place to navigate. So that's where the story starts."
• The song's music video is a dramatic introduction to Attention Attention. It is the first of a series of clips for every song on the record helmed by Bill Yukich, the lead editor on Beyonce's Lemonade film. The visuals follow the storyline running through the album, of an individual in a dark, negative mental and emotional place, slowly going through a change within the confines of their mind before emerging on the highest of highs as anxieties dissipate and demons disappear.
  
  "It was all about starting the story off very dramatic," Smith said of the "Devil" clip. "It's not set in a traditional, quote-unquote music video style. It plays out, even in the four minutes-and-change that the song is, [that] we pack a lot of information into this first song for the viewer, because that was all built by design; we really wanted to make a statement with this video."
  
  "The colors are very vibrant, the way that the editing is shot and the amount of detail in the story of the song, how much he was able to present, is quite frankly unlike anything I've been able to see any director be able to do for the first song you heard," he added. "It's kind of like being a new artist... because I guarantee nobody will have ever seen Shinedown in this capacity."
• Brent Smith explained the song's meaning to Loudwire:
  
  "'Devil' is really about understanding that maybe in your past you might have run into the brick wall. But the fact of the matter is that the brick wall is undefeated. You know what I mean? Like if you run into it, it's gonna win. You got to figure out ways to manoeuvre those obstacles that come at you. And that's a bit of what the basis is for 'Devil.' It's this person accepting the fact that if they're gonna continue moving on in their life, and in their journey, then in their world, they're gonna have to make some changes. It's only gonna better them. But in the same breath, they're going to have to face these issues."