"Wolves of Winter" is a song by Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro, and the first single from the band's seventh studio album, '' Ellipsis''. It was released on 21 March 2016 and premiered as Zane Lowe's World Record on

Beats 1 Apple Music 1, previously branded as Beats 1, is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. It is accessible through iTunes or the Apple Music app on a computer, smartphone or tablet, smart speaker (such as the Apple HomePod), ...

. It was later sent to alternative radio in the United States on 15 August 2017 as the album's sixth domestic single.

Release and promotion

The release came after a series of teaser videos previewing small clips of the song was uploaded to the band's official YouTube channel. These videos were eventually removed on the day of release, and replaced with a lengthier preview of the song which announced the name and release date of the album.

Background and concept

Lead singer Simon Neil appeared on both initial broadcasts to talk about the upcoming album and its first single. He explained how the idea for the song came from a documentary by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

which talked about the territorial habits of wolves in the wild, comparing it to his feelings towards those who had doubted his ability to succeed. 'Wolves of Winter' was the first song recorded for ''Ellipsis'', and the first song recorded with producer Rich Costey. During an interview with '' NME'', Neil also admitted that he is excited to perform the track live, stating that it would likely serve as a show-opener for the next few years. He explained the difficulties the band faced during recording, due to Costey challenging the band to help the evolution of their music. Drummer Ben Johnston elaborated on Costey's production, experimenting with recording techniques such as recording every drum piece individually and taping a microphone to Johnston's chest. Eventually they settled on sending the microphones through a Marshall amp in order to give the drums a distorted sound.

Video

A music video for the song was released on 12 April 2016. The concept of the video, as described by Simon Neil, "is basically the full evolution of man". The video is the first not to include the band members themselves, which Neil has said to be "a relief". It features a ''Star Wars'' inspired ending, with a ship blowing up a

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

Charts

References

External links

Lyrics to this song
at Genius
Wolves of Winter (Preview)
on YouTube {{Biffy Clyro Biffy Clyro songs 2016 singles 14th Floor Records singles Songs written by Simon Neil 2016 songs