Songfacts®:

• This emotional, acoustic-driven ballad about addiction originated from an idea that guitarist Dan Donegan came up with, which he sent to frontman David Draiman. The Disturbed singer has seen a number of people he cares about fall victim to dependence issues and Donegan's demo hit him hard.
  
  "I know people who've battled addiction and have seen it in their face - the shame they have - feeling they've let themselves and others down," Donegan said. "We wanted to write a song with a positive message for people in that situation to stay hopeful and not give up the fight, as challenging as it may be. It's an everyday struggle, but there can also be a light at the end of the tunnel."
• David Draiman's lyrics were inspired by people he knew who took their own lives, including the ex-girlfriend who committed suicide when he was 16 whom he sings about on "Inside The Fire." He also had in mind more recent people whom he'd seen die of unnatural causes such as Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell.
  
  "The unnatural ones are the ones that we really need to start talking about at some point," Draiman told Billboard. "And start dealing with depression, start dealing with addiction. It is a demon and is something that we need to recognize as something that we need to start actively doing something about. Not just being like 'That's too bad' after the fact. We need families coming together, communities coming together, people coming together, recognizing it and addressing it sooner than later. It's ridiculous. We need to mobilize at this point. We're losing people too often."
• Speaking with Ronni Hunter of Columbus, Ohio's 99.7 The Blitz radio station, Donegan said the first time the subject of depression and addiction really hit him was when Robin Williams died. The guitarist recalled that he used to think that suicide is very selfish, but when you look at someone like Robin Williams who seemed to have everything you want in life - family, money and success - it dawned on him that this is a disease.
  
  So Donegan told Draiman that he wanted to do a song on Evolution about depression and addiction, "We've all had either family friends or close people to us that have had their struggles, or continue to struggle," he explained. "I have my older brother that's had his struggles. He's on and off, and I know what a great guy he is, and I can hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes of feeling like he's let people down. I thought it was important for us to try to address the issue to let people know that it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's nothing to be embarrassed by. It's a disease, and you're not alone." (An autopsy revealed that Williams was suffering from a different disease: Lewy Body Dementia.)
• When the song topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart it became Disturbed's record-breaking sixth consecutive #1 on the tally. The achievement broke a tie with Three Days Grace, who logged five consecutive visits to the summit in 2012-15.
• Matt Mahurin, who directed the video for the band's Grammy-nominated cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," also helped the clip for this tune. It finds a man trapped inside of a bottle, representing his dependency on alcohol, as he watches his family live without him. Desperate to reunite with them, he finally manages to escape and heads towards home, where an open door waits for him.