Songfacts®:

• Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe has frequently spoken out about his disdain for Donald Trump, referring to him as "the orange idiot" in one interview. The lyrics to this ferocious number appear to be another scathing indictment of America's 45th president.
  
  A coup d'état on full display, a liar's sick charade
  A traitor's grand parade
  Narcissistic masquerades for those without a say
  Systematic disarray
  
  However, Blythe insisted to Billboard magazine this is not the case.
  
  "To write a record bashing Donald Trump would be rather futile, because the situation with our president is so protean and ever-shifting, and reality has become so subjective and surreal," he explained. "'Checkmate' is not about the Republicans. It's about how both political parties right now are two sides of the same coin, which is very destructive and disruptive to democracy."
• Though the Lamb Of God album is political, the tracks are about the system rather than specific individuals. "When we had (George W. Bush) during the (2004 album) Ashes of the Wake era, he was a whole lot easier to write specifics about because we had the war in Iraq, the mythical weapons of mass destruction," Blythe explained to Kerrang. "But right now, the political world everywhere looks like Peewee Herman's playhouse."
  
  "They are two sides of the same coin," he continued. "Civility and discourse is at an all-time low, and that's because people view political parties now not for their policies, but they support these different parties like sports teams. The lyrics reflect that. The system is a f--king fraud."
• The ferocious number received its concert debut when the band descended on Chicago's House of Vans for an intimate concert on February 14, 2020.