Songfacts®:

• Shinedown wrote and recorded "Diamond Eyes" specifically for the 2010 testosterone-fueled Sylvester Stallone movie The Expendables. The song was also used in the theatrical trailer. The song was released as a single on June 22, 2010.
  
  When Stallone asks you to write a song for his movie, it can be a great career move for a band, as "Survivor can tell you."
• The "fist-first philosophy" of the lyrics are in line with the movie's storyline of hired guns on a mission to a South American country, with the objective of overturning the cold-blooded despot in charge.
• The song was tacked on to the 2010 expanded edition of Shinedown's 2008 album The Sound Of Madness. It was written by band members Brent Smith, Eric Bass and Zach Myers, and became their sixth #1 hit on the Mainstream Rock chart, which they continued to dominate for years.
• When Survivor agreed to write the theme song for Sylvester Stallone's movie Rocky III, he told them to make a key line of dialoge the song's hook: "Eye Of The Tiger." He did something similar with Shinedown for The Expendables, asking them to make the hook "Boom-Lay Boom-Lay BOOM!" which comes from a 1915 poem by Vachel Lindsay called "The Congo" that served as inspiration for the film. That's why Shinedown incorporated that line into the song.
  
  In the poem, "Boom-Lay Boom-Lay BOOM!" is a motif, repeating throughout.
• Eric Bass of Shinedown spoke on the Songfacts Podcast about collaborating with Sylvester Stallone on this song:
  
  "We were invited to Stallone's office - to the screening room - and got to sit with him and watch the whole movie. There was no CGI in it yet, just blue screens. Here's Sylvester Stallone, this legendary Hollywood icon, and in that moment, he was every other creator I've ever met: on the edge of the couch, excited, nervously watching, turning around to point out scenes. He wanted us to see where the CGI would go, where things would happen.
  
  If you're a creator, you know what I mean. When you're about to show something to the world, there's an energy you have to bring. It was really pleasant to see. Sometimes you think people in Hollywood have it all figured out, but they're just as invested as the rest of us.
  
  When he closed the door and it was just the five of us, he became just a guy who makes movies - no longer the icon. That was the biggest takeaway. The other thing was, it was refreshing that he hadn't lost his enthusiasm. As you get more successful and wade further out, it's easy to get jaded and stop enjoying what you do. Some people you encounter can make you lose that joy. I think back on that. Here's a guy who's battled Hollywood and he's still enthusiastic about his creations."