The song was first teased on October 13, 2017, through a short, fifteen second soundless video posted to the band's social media, saying nothing other than "A Perfect Circle - The Doomed".

[10] The song was released just prior to the band starting their second leg of their North American tour, which is scheduled to run from October to December 2017.

[18] The song's lyrics, written by band frontman Maynard James Keenan, conveyed the message through lines such as "What of the pious, the pure of heart, the peaceful?

"[17]It was also interpreted to be a statement against modern Christianity, a topic Keenan frequently has addressed in his work,[19][8] with AZ Central comparing it to a "nihilistic Sermon on the Mount".

[22] While not the lyrics writer, Howerdel explained that, to him, the song was about the human condition of power corrupting the people in control of the world.

[1][20] The song then dials back to segments consisting only of Keenan's soft-spoken, melodic vocals over piano/xylophone parts, leading to a sound described as "a band's take on what an orchestra could accomplish if stripped to its bare bones, coming across as grand yet minimalistic.

named it their top song of the week upon release, praising it for taking the style of "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" and giving it scathing lyrics relevant to the polarized political landscape of 2017.

[23] Glide magazine praised the song for being "stunning addition to A Perfect Circle catalogue" and "a fantastic example of how music and art should react to the horrors of contemporary life.

I do kinda miss Josh Freese's drums, which were less aggro and more eloquent than Jeff Friedl's, but it's not a deal breaker or whatever.