The first of the “Altered Beast” tracks, “Altered Beast I” follows someone who encounters a hybrid creature described as “half made of man, half of bear.” The spectator is both frightened and intrigued by the beast and watches it approach.
A demo for the song was released as part of Demos Vol. 4: Music To Die To. In it, we hear a stripped back instrumental version close to the studio release. The only major difference is the riff of “Altered Beast IV” at 1:34. Other early versions of the song can be heard in A BRIEF HISTORY OF PLANET EARTH. The song was released as part of Murder of the Universe on June 23rd, 2017. A music video for “The Tale of the Altered Beast” was planned but never finished with footage making its way into promotional material and A BRIEF HISTORY OF PLANET EARTH.
The song’s first reported performance was on 2017-04-18 at the Paradise Pool at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. It wouldn’t be played regularly until May of 2018 when the song was played after “Alter Me I” — reversed from the track listing of Murder of the Universe. This continued going into June, with the song even coming out of “Cellophane.” The song would appear in its “Alter Me I” > “Altered Beast I” form going into 2019 though 2019-07-04 saw the album sequence of “Altered Beast I” > “Alter Me I” > “Altered Beast II.” The song took a break before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and returned on 2022-10-05 as part of the story’s opening sequence from “A New World” to “Altered Beast II.” The band played it in sequence (even adding “Alter Me II” and “Altered Beast III” on 2022-10-11) on a few dates in 2022, all of which featured Leah Senior providing narration. In 2023 the band returned to narration-less versions, but kept it in its original order.