“Freedom is Dead” by Demon Hunter
It can be said that America is a unique country. For instance, you’re not likely to come across, say a band of Chinese rockers dropping a track called “Freedom Is Dead”. Many Americans value their rights to do what they want, in a manner of speaking, and perhaps no genre has embraced that ideology as much as rock music.
So with that in mind, what the lyrics of this song are actually based on is the idea of it becoming increasingly difficult to exercise freedom. In other words, society, under the estimation of the vocalist, is becoming increasingly so that different views are not tolerated. And what is ultimately being inferred, if you’re familiar with the type of people who tend to support this mindframe, is that as opinions are suppressed, then nonconformity itself ultimately becomes illegal, so to speak. Or once again going back to the ideologies upon which America was built, it is a nation that values the right to choose and to disagree.
So that is why we also find the vocalist ‘dreaming’ of a revolution of sorts. Or put differently, he is compelled to resist the propagation of cancel culture. And why? Because as he sees it, “freedom is” already “dead”, and therefore corrective action must be taken.
Demon Hunter
The colorfully-named Demon Hunter is actually a band of Christian hard rockers from Seattle. They have experienced notable success on that end of the spectrum. For example, nine out of the eleven studio albums they have released thus far have scored within the top 10 of Billboard’s Christian Albums chart.
For the record, the group’s discography dates back to 2002. Furthermore, all of their projects thus far have been issued under Solid State Records.
Release of “Freedom is Dead”
“Freedom Is Dead”, which was released on 3 June 2022, marks the lead single from their 12th studio album, “Exile”. This is a project which also boasts its own limited-series comic book.
As of this dropping, Demon Hunter is made up of lead singer Ryan Clark alongside the following:
- Patrick Judge (guitarist)
- Jeremiah Scott (guitarist)
- Jon Dunn (bassist)
- Tim Watts (drummer)
If you do some deeper thinking the phrase ‘freedom is dead’ has clear double meaning and changes as the song progresses.
In the first half of the song it is speaking of the pressure to conform to the world and to bow in submission to conformity and the ‘we do not tolerate intolerance’ worldview. Further to this, it is speaking of how we are all slaves to a world fallen and broken by sin; slaves are not free.
There is a shift partway through the song about true freedom. To save your life you have to make a choice to give it up. To live is Christ, and to die is gain.
It’s important to recognize that this song was written within the story in a dystopian futuristic sci-fi concept album. However, the above explanation does accurately give the message behind the song.