Songfacts®:

• Killswitch Engage announced in 2012 that they had parted ways with singer Howard Jones and would be welcoming back Jesse Leach, their original vocalist. Guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz remained friends with Jones after he left the band, and through him the past and present Killswitch singers got to know one another.
  
  It was Leach who suggested that the two frontmen should unite for this Atonement track. Dutkiewicz told HMV.com: "I think it's a good message to show fans that there are no hard feelings and no dramas with this band."
• After hanging out with Jones a few times, Leach was struck by how similar they are. Leach wrote "The Signal Fire" lyrics with Jones in mind, particularly their like-minded experiences with mental illness. "We are brothers in metal, anxiety, hardcore music, love of medicinal marijuana and fighting depression," Leach said. "We may be very different-sounding voices, but, in truth, we are similar in many ways in our minds."
• The song's performance-based music video was filmed by Boston-based director Ian McFarland. A longtime Killswitch Engage collaborator, McFarland also shot with Mike Pecci Killswitch Engage's clips for "Always," "In Due Time," "Strength of the Mind," and "Hate by Design."