With one of the most memorable hooks from The Silver Cord, “Extinction” is the album’s closing track that brings everything to a transcendental end. It is, of course, about extinction, but references various gods mentioned throughout The Silver Cord (Chang’e and Set in particular). It also nods to other tracks in the band’s discography like “Crumbling Castle” and “The Acrid Corpse.” The song features vocals from Stu and Ambrose and is an upbeat track despite its dark lyrics.
The band had hinted at the song live such as on 2023-06-07, where Ambrose sang its opening line during a “Robot Stop” jam. In September, the title was used as a presale code for the band’s 2024 marathon shows in the United States.
It was released on October 27th, 2023. The song was later released as the b-side of “Swan Song” for a limited edition 7” single sold at the Hamburg record fair on 2024-05-22 (later on the p(doom) EU store).
Three versions of “Extinction” have been released. The standard version of the song runs short of five minutes. The extended version goes for twelve and a half minutes. There is also a single edit that can be found on the Hamburg 7” which features a unique ending not heard on either the standard or extended versions of The Silver Cord.
“Extinction" corresponds to “Flamethrower” from sister-album PetroDragonic Apocalypse, by bringing back the chorus vocals in the extended mix, as well as a quick reference to Beowulf from the track “Witchcraft.” The song is also mentioned on the extended mix of “Swan Song.”
Besides the connections to PetroDragonic Apocalypse, the extended mix also seems to reference the story of the Venusian astronauts on Infest the Rats’ Nest, describing “rats” flying into the sky which end up burning to death as “pilgrims with burnt offerings.” The phrase “rats in the sky” was later revealed to be a title for a song from the album Flight b741 and was used as a presale code for the band’s 2025 residency tour. The song “Field of Vision” is also referenced in the extended lyrics with the line “metal horses on the flight”, which parallels “fly upon the metal horse.” “Field of Vision” also contains the lyric “I can see the music,” which links with the chorus of “Extinction.”
Following the previously mentioned teases, “Extinction” was rehearsed on April 26th, 2024 as seen in an Instagram story. Later on 2024-05-20, the band would open their show at Columbiahalle in Berlin with its live debut. They performed a longer version of the song with multiple, atmospheric sections and transitioned it into the live debut of the Changes song “Gondii.” While “Extinction” was extended, it was not a copy of the extended studio version of the song. This performance makes it the first song from The Silver Cord to be played live.