"Waking the Demon" is a song by Welsh heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Bullet for My Valentine

Bullet for My Valentine

Bullet for My Valentine are a Welsh heavy metal band from Bridgend, formed in 1998. The band is composed of Matt Tuck , Michael Paget , Jason James , and Michael Thomas . They were formed under the name Jeff Killed John and started their music career by covering songs by Metallica and Nirvana...

. The song is released as the third and final single from their second album Scream Aim Fire

Scream Aim Fire

Scream Aim Fire is the second studio album by Welsh heavy metal band Bullet for My Valentine, released on 28 January 2008 in the UK and the preceding day in the US...

. The video for the song was written and directed by Max Nichols (son of Academy Award-winning director Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...

). It is one of the most aggressive songs on the album.

Song concept

The lyrical meaning of the song is revenge. Matt Tuck, lead singer and guitarist, said:

"Waking the Demon is about finding someone's inner demon. Most of us in the band got pushed around in school so the song is about getting tormented, day in and day out for years, and then one day - 'snap!' - fight back!"

There are two videos of the song, the unedited version is where towards the end of the guitar solo, there is blood on the werewolf's hands and mouth. In the edited version, no such scene takes place. Some releases of the video edit the screaming vocals in the verses into singing with only Jason screaming backing vocals in the verses (identical to the radio version).

On April 9, 2008, Bullet for My Valentine released a special trailer for their upcoming video, Waking the Demon. The video was released on April 16, 2008 via MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 video. The song began to be played on radio stations in the U.S. on April 21.

On April 7, 2009, Waking the Demon was released as a downloadable song for Rock Band. It is one of the hardest songs available for lead guitar and drums, and utilizes the album version of the song with screamed lyrics. this foo

Music video

The video is about a teenage heavy metal fan that gets bullied in high school by a group of jocks. The leader of the group is dating a very beautiful girl who seems a little sympathetic for the boy, but is not brave enough to stand up for him. There are numerous shots of the band playing in a moonlit forest. Throughout the video, the jocks repeatedly attack the boy, including beating him in the locker room and dumping a Strawberry shake on him in class, while in off scenes the teenager is crossing off dates in his calendar in his locker. He circles the last date, the 28th, which is labeled, "Full Moon". That night, he is watching the bullies' leader, waiting by the forest for his girlfriend, as his girlfriend lured him to the forest by asking to meet him there so that the teenage boy could get revenge on him. The teenager throws a balloon filled with cottage cheese at the jock's car to get him to chase him deeper into the forest. The song breaks down as the bully chases the boy through the forest. As the guitar solo starts, the teenager falls down on his knees and the moon comes out of the clouds, turning him into a werewolf. The bully approaches the now changed boy, and is presumably killed by the werewolf, since blood is shown on his mouth and hands, and the next day at school, there is a new sign displaying the original bully as missing. He is now picked on by a new jock and the girlfriend of the old bully runs up and hugs him, hinting that now she's going out with him after news that the leader went missing. As the new bully walks off with the girl, she looks at the teenager, giving him a look of "I'm on your side" and he sees her eyes glow red (revealing that she also is a werewolf like himself). He smiles knowing that her new boyfriend will be the next victim, and crosses out the first day of the next month waiting for the full moon to come again.

Track listing

iTunes Single

1. "Waking the Demon" – 4:07
2. "Say Goodnight" (Acoustic Version) – 3:14

Promotional single

1. "Waking the Demon" (Radio Edit) – 4:08

Personnel

Bullet for My Valentine

• Matthew "Matt" Tuck- lead vocals, rhythm guitar
  Rhythm guitar
  Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
  
  
• Jason "Jay" James - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , vocals
• Michael "Padge" Paget - lead guitar
  Lead guitar
  Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
  
  
• Michael "Moose" Thomas - drums, percussion

Production

• Produced by Tony Petrossian
  Tony Petrossian
  Tony Petrossian is an acclaimed director of commercials and music videos. Today, he is best known for his work in television advertisements and music videos. He has directed spots for brands including McDonald's, Nike, Subway, Zoo York, Beeline, Sony Ericsson, the Environmental Defense Fund and...
  
  
• Music video directed by Max Nichols

Release history

Country	Date	Format
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	21 April 2008	CD single
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	16 June 2008	iTunes
Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...		EP
South Korea South Korea The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

Charts

Chart	Peak Chart Position
U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock Tracks Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...	39