Avenged Sevenfold - Shepherd Of Fire Lyrics

Shepherd Of Fire is the opening song of Hail to the King, Avenged Sevenfold's sixth studio album. The noise at the beginning of the song that sounds like rain is in fact fire.

It was intentionally written as an intro track. Guitarist Synyster Gates told MusicRadar.com: "The idea was that the arrangement would evoke a sense of imagery with the tribal yet primordial drums. It seemed to resonate from Hell almost. It's something of an apocalyptic call to arms."

"I love the arrangement," he added. "We wanted to set up the album and foreshadow what was to come, being that it's a groove-based, riff-oriented record. We haven't really done Zeppelin-style or Sabbath-like riffs before, so this is our version of an album that's along those lines."

Lead vocalist M. Shadows told Kerrang! magazine: "If you just listen to the music, it feels like you've been taken down to Hell. From the riffs, to the bells ringing, to the horns, to the drumbeat, it feels like you're being dragged down."

He added: "It's very like 'Sympathy For The Devil,' in that there's a silver-tongued Devil speaking to you. He's not all about fire and brimstone; he's luring you down and telling you he can make your life better than the guy up above. There's a temptation vibe to it, with pure chaos going on behind it."

This song is featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops II: Apocalypse (The game's fourth and final downloadable content pack). The band previously contributed "Not Ready to Die" and "Carry On" to Call of Duty.