The lyrics explore the hypothetical situation where an average citizen is placed in a position where he runs the country while the public is led by a phantom government.

[5] The video features each band member individually playing, with a mostly black-and-white, nonlinear narrative revolving around a political candidate who is assassinated, and the massive amount of anarchy and riots caused by the event.

Inspired, he began writing lyrics on the back of a sushi receipt, " My metal brains corroding, my head is going to explode".

[8] In the legend, the Pied Piper had the ability to force children and rats to follow his demands mindlessly, like the political leaders do to the public.

[11] In the first five seconds of the song, the sound of an orchestra tuning is heard,[12] followed by a short segment of vocals from the Domine Jesu Christe — the choral tutti in the beginning with the lyrics Rex Gloriæ — from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem.

[14][15] By 1992, Mustaine's vocal performance and style, along with Megadeth's bombastic aesthetic, were considered jarring by some music listeners, meaning they had not yet been exposed to more mainstream audiences.

Partially due to the success and radio friendliness of this song and Countdown to Extinction, Megadeth was capable of reaching a higher level of public awareness and cultural relevance.

The remainder of the video consists of nonlinear footage of the band performing and miscellaneous destruction caused by the chaos inflicted by citizens and significant collateral damage.

The controversy was defended by Dave Mustaine, where he stated "I think it's more important that our point got across than the fact of whether or not we had to soften up a certain scene or lose it altogether.

[28] Russian slam death metal band Katalepsy covered the song, which appears as track seven on their album Musick Brings Injuries but is titled "S.O.D.".

[41] In the MOBA game League of Legends, a champion known as Mordekaiser used to have the ability Siphon of Destruction, a reference to the song.

'Aguante' is a Spanish slang term that means to "hold on tight", which represents to stick strongly to something, it's normally used in sports events to give support to the team players.

The first time the Argentine crowd chanted this out, heavily influenced by its football song singing culture in stadiums, Dave Mustaine was blown out of his mind.