Songfacts®:

• "History Of Violence" is a narrative about a domestic violence victim. The girl goes to extremes to end her relationship with her abuser and ends up in jail after shooting him.
• The song originated with a chorus vocalist Tyler Connolly came up with about something else entirely. He enlisted his ex-wife, Christine Connolly, to help him flesh out his idea, and they decided to make it about domestic abuse. He told Anti Music: "Having never written a song like this before it was definitely helpful to have a woman's perspective."
  
  Connolly added: "The guitar and piano make the song feel so sad, which mirrors the lyrics perfectly. We added some strings and heavy guitars as well to balance it out. With the lone piano at the end of song, I can almost picture her kicking rocks around the prison yard. If you listen carefully, you can hear my fingers come off the keys after."
• The music video, directed by Sam Sulam, reflects the song's story about a woman who ends up in jail after fighting back at her abusive husband. "Even though she's in jail, it's still a better place to be than being imprisoned in real life by this man," said Connolly. "We're encouraging anyone affected by domestic violence to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help: 1-800-799-7233."
• This was the first ever video shot for a Theory Of A Deadman song in which they don't appear. Said Connolly: "Sam Sulam did such a great job with the music video. The band also loved the idea of a non-performance video. I think we've shot like 30 of them and this is the first time we're not in it. I think it would have just gotten in the way of such a gripping story and Sam was able to really pull it off making it all about her. When all was said and done, we wanted the audience to feel sad and still be able to empathize with her situation after everything that had happened. That was really important to us."