Parasite Eve (song)

The track was teased by Oliver Sykes on Instagram. It was expected to be released on 10 June 2020, but due to the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, the song was postponed to 25 June.[5]

"Parasite Eve" has been described as a nu metal[6] and electronic rock song[7] with some elements of electropop.[8] The song was inspired by the Japanese video game of the same name. It was written and composed by the band while in quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic. The song samples "Erghen Diado" from the album Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.[4] The lyrics talk about what is happening during the pandemic, saying that "This is a war" between countries for discovering a vaccine. At the same time, Sykes talks about when the pandemic is overcome, while asking "If you survive the infection, will you remember the lesson?" to the people and the world leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro that rejected and ignored the gravity of the virus.[9] Sykes said about the lyrics of the song amid the similarity of the current world situation:

"It was really weird, we'd heard about the pandemic in China, but then the similarities between what we were writing about started to become closer to reality. Every time there was a news story about it, we'd turn to each other and say 'Parasite Eve', not realising the magnitude of it all. We shelved the song for a bit because it felt bit too close to the bone. After sitting on it for a while, we realised that this was a reason to release it now more than ever. In our music we've always wanted to escape, but there's been too much escapism and ignoring the problems in the world. It's not what the world needs. The world needs more and needs to think about it and remember. You can't just brush over it and expect life to go back to normal, because it fucking ain't. In so many ways, we need to change. That's what rock music is about – addressing the dark side and processing it..."[1]

The music video for "Parasite Eve" was released on the same day as the single was streamed. Directed by Sykes himself, he took inspiration from some of his favorite video games, films and the genre of nu metal.[10] Using masks a friend of his created, each member filmed their video parts separately. This was an effort to stay within the social distancing restrictions set in place. Due to the lockdown restrictions, the band filmed the video with minimal crew and minimal resources.[11]

As of January 2021, the song has 20 million views on YouTube.

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics