Songfacts®:

• This meditation on the inevitability of death begins with somber, eerie guitars. Just over a minute-and-a-half in, Randy Blythe screams "Wake up!" and the rest of the band enters the fray. "I had been sitting with the intro and post-chorus for a while, trying to develop them as separate songs," guitarist Mark Morton told Apple Music. "I was a little bit stumped."
  
  It was only when Morton, rhythm guitarist Willie Aldler and producer Josh Wilbur decided to merge the pieces together that things took off. "It was one of those times where once I knew what we were trying to do, the riffs fell out like they were writing themselves," Morton said.
• When Randy Blythe heard the intro, he "instantly got a throwback Sisters of Mercy type vibe." Inspired by the British Goth band, he took it from there. Said the Lamb of God singer:
  
  "I wrote 'Memento Mori' as a reminder to myself to not be consumed by the omnipresent electronic harbingers of doom that surround us - cellphones, computers, and television screens.
  
  While these devices can be useful tools, and it is important to stay informed, it is equally important to remain engaged with the real, physical world we with live in, not just digitally filtered representations of reality."
• "Memento Mori" is a Latin expression meaning "remember you must die." Interpretations of the purpose of this reminder include a warning of the vanity of earthly pleasures or an exhortation to make the most of life on Earth.
• Executed from a narrative treatment written by Blythe, the "Memento Mori" video features the band performing the song.
  
  Said Blythe: "I wrote the narrative music video treatment a few months ago to illustrate how warped and myopic our mental states can become when we fail to remain engaged with that reality - if all you pay attention to is catastrophe, then soon you will begin to see monsters everywhere you look."
  
  The clip features costumed monsters from the band's hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Blythe explained, "The actual monsters we used in the video are Sinisteria, a local Richmond, Virginia haunted house/dark performance troupe I met on the street at our annual Krampus Nacht parade."