Starting with a flurry of instruments ranging from guitar to flute and saxophones, “Lava” settles into a slow groove where Stu sings about the ways lava can kill and the feeling of sinking in molten rock. After this, the song ends like a volcano erupting with an outburst of guitars and drums as well as a string of ritualistic connected phrases about lava, serpents and death. The basis of “Lava” is the Lydian scale which, according to an interview with Stu for Guitar World, was tough for the band. “That was hard for us. We tend to sit on the tonic – the one – and explore it, but Lydian has that sharp four, which means it’s inherently floating outside of its tonic – it doesn’t want you to sit on the one. A lot of our music is muscular and strong and powerful, and Lydian is none of those things. It’s like a cloud, like air – unsolid.” While the lyrics were written by Stu, Ambrose, Cook and Joey, the music was written and performed by Stu (piano/keyboards/vocals/flute/clavinet/organ), Ambrose (keyboards/saxophone/vocals), Joey (guitar/synthesizer), Lucas (bass), Cook (keyboards/guitar) and Cavs (drums). It was released on Ice, Death… on October 7th, 2022.

“Lava” made its live debut on 2022-10-15 at Radius in Chicago and would be played on it’s own throughout 2022 and 2023 as a semi-regular track. In 2024, however, “Lava” was rarely seen with only one performance. Most versions of the song are longer than the studio version.