Songfacts®:

• One of Burial's most well-known and critically acclaimed productions, "Archangel" features a dark, warm sub bass, and his trademark skipped garage-influenced beats, which fade in and out under layers of crackle.
• The track features carefully pitch-shifted samples of Ray J's "One Wish," turning single vocal lines into entire melodic phrases. It is this incredible attention to detail with vocal sampling that set Burial's album Untrue apart from its predecessor.
• The main string sample is taken from the soundtrack for the video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Burial (William Bevan) often borrowed sounds from this game, including the sound of bullet shells falling to the ground, heard in multiple tracks.
• The pitched-up "oh no"s towards the end of the track are from a Christina Aguilera a cappella performance on Saturday Night Live.
• Despite its use of Garage beats, "Archangel" is regarded as dubstep (or even "post-pubstep" to some) for its dark, head-down mood and emphasis on atmosphere over melody.