Songfacts®:

• Alexisonfire split in 2012 before reuniting four years later. This is their first new song since the music on their 2010 Dog's Blood EP.
• Musically this is a riff that Alexisonfire have been playing since around 2010. Lyrically the song has a number of different meanings, depending on the listener's point of view. Vocalist George Pettit explained:
  
  "'Familiar Drugs' is about recognizing you need to make a change in your life, being presented with the opportunity to make that change, and then choosing to do the same thing you always do. It's about something very specific to me but it can be taken literally or interpreted in any number of ways. Most people have something in their lives they can't quit, substances, unhealthy relationships, lethargy, self righteousness, a job they hate. 'Familiar Drugs' is about choosing comfort over self betterment."
• George Petit told Kerrang the riff came from an old phone belonging to guitarist Dallas Green. When he plugged it in, he found an old voice note on it with the riff.