M. Shadows explained to Kerrang! magazine:
The song tells the tale of a tyrannical king who strikes down any who oppose him. "'Hail To The King' is a question about how society sees itself. From day one, people have elected kings and leaders, people have followed presidents, and they cry over who the new pope is. Sometimes you've got to step back and say, 'What are we doing here? Why do we need all of these people to tell us how to run our lives?' That goes for God above and Satan below. Who's the king? We have many kings. It was one of those things when we said the statement, sang it in a song and it was like, 'wow, that really strikes a nerve and means something.' We knew that some people would look at it as us saying, 'We're the kings,' but we were willing to undergo that amount of criticism, when really it was something a bit deeper about society."
M. Shadows explained to Kerrang! magazine:
The song tells the tale of a tyrannical king who strikes down any who oppose him. "'Hail To The King' is a question about how society sees itself. From day one, people have elected kings and leaders, people have followed presidents, and they cry over who the new pope is. Sometimes you've got to step back and say, 'What are we doing here? Why do we need all of these people to tell us how to run our lives?' That goes for God above and Satan below. Who's the king? We have many kings. It was one of those things when we said the statement, sang it in a song and it was like, 'wow, that really strikes a nerve and means something.' We knew that some people would look at it as us saying, 'We're the kings,' but we were willing to undergo that amount of criticism, when really it was something a bit deeper about society."