Songfacts®:

• This is the first single released by English dance-punk band Hadouken! after signing with independent label Ministry of Sound. Zane Lowe premiered the song on April 12, 2012, during his BBC Radio 1 show.
• The song fuses the band's usual sonic aggression with a rhythm bouncy enough to make it suitable for the dance floor. Hadouken! mainman James Smith explained to Artist Direct: "We were trying to create a fusion between rock and dance elements. When it gets to the chorus, you get this big guitar riff and a very rock-y, punk-y vocal. There's also a bass line with a drum n' bass feel. That's the music I grew up with. In London, it's been big forever. Obviously, dubstep, rave music, and dance music are too. We were trying to get something quite epic and emotional, put it all together, and combine the best of the elements for a good song that goes down really well live."
• Smith explained the concept behind the song's music video to Artist Direct: "The idea is to visually replicate the mundane, urban suburbia of London and Europe to you guys," he said. "It's that drab and droll socialist housing in places. We're trying to add something magical in there which, to us, would be the music and possibly all the stuff that goes around it like the culture. It brings that mundane setting down to life and turns it into something quite magical. The director really captured it. 'PARASITE' is probably the darkest and heaviest song on the album. We wanted to replicate that. If we were going to go dark on any video, this was going to be the one. It's cool. It's got this schizophrenia or something going on there. It's narrative, and it fits the song perfectly."