“Self-Immolate” opens with a pattern reminiscent of Orc war drums, one of the most ominous and iconic intros of any King Gizzard song. It sets the off-kilter rhythm for a chugging guitar riff that drives one of their evilest songs. A Flightless newsletter reads: “‘Self-Immolate’ sees riff piled upon riff and Stu Mackenzie delivering a vocal display to stand alongside the likes of Tom Araya or Max Cavalera.” One of the most beloved metal songs in their discography, it describes the final moments of a doomed space trip away from Earth. Following the story of the travelers in “Venusian 2,” they land on Venus and step out only to be lit ablaze. According to NASA, the surface of Venus is eight hundred and sixty-four degrees Fahrenheit (four hundred and sixty-four degrees Celsius) due to its atmosphere, making it the hottest planet in our solar system. This leaves the crew of Venusian 2 to die stranded, though their fate is welcomed. They were sick of being stuck in a ship and tired of life on Earth. At this point, death and a one way trip to Hell is more welcoming. They happily sacrifice themselves to the planet through fire.
A demo for the song can be heard on Demos Vol. 6: Music To Burn Money To. Lacking the drum intro and most of the vocals and guitar lead parts of the final version, it’s a mostly instrumental version of the song that is otherwise close to the final version heard on Infest the Rats’ Nest. Early versions of “Self-Immolate” can be seen throughout the documentary RATTY. At the beginning of the film, the band rehearses the song, debating the structure and figuring out the drum intro with Stu suggesting that it could be three hits, but Cavs cementing it as two. Stu also remarks that the song is “scary.” Later the band is seen going over a recorded, though possibly unmixed, version of the completed song. The final version of the song would feature Stu (vocals/guitar/bass), Joey (bass/backing vocals), Cavs (drums/backing vocals), Ambrose (backing vocals), Cook (backing vocals) and Eric (backing vocals).
On April 29th, 2019, King Gizzard hosted a Reddit AMA on r/indieheads. The account they used to answer questions was u/Auto_Cremate, leading fans to speculate that “Auto Cremate” would be the title of an upcoming metal album. When asked if this was the title, they responded both yes and no, leaving fans wondering.
The band teased a new video on May 21st, 2019. A video for “Self-Immolate” directed by John Angus Stewart would drop on May 29th alongside a single. Following the events of “Planet B,” it starts with flashing green text and Zagan (played by Katherine Grinlaw) driving up to the band, who are curled up on the tarmac wearing black and blue jackets. Zagan gets out with a can of gasoline and drinks from it, while each member of the band is shown spitting some out, implying they have been doused. Throwing away the can, Zagan lights a flare and the band runs aimlessly into the darkness, seemingly half awake and stumbling around. As Zagan spits out more gasoline while sitting in her car, the band follows. Suddenly the band is on fire while Zagan lights another flare on the roof of her car. As the band flails around in pain and confusion, Zagan sits alone and takes a look at the camera before a cut to black.
In a Flightless newsletter John Angus Stewart described the plot. “The offerers were sent to hell. But what was only a few moments on earth, were over 500 years for the offerers. Zagan, summons them back to earth to keep her side of the bargain. The offerers are shadows of what they once were after lifetimes served in the spiralling, stinking pits of Hell. They have forgotten existence without constant agony, searing heat and torture. They quiver and shake, terrified of a place they once only knew but now cannot conceive. Zagan performs the ritual of reanimation, possessing them with a half-life. The offerers, vomit and choke as the petrol fills their lungs. To complete the re-animation ritual they must self-immolate to cauterise their new form. They turn to hell with a blind, idealistic, altruistic hope, but now they have become the anthropomorphised doom and fire that will consume the earth itself.” When asked what the video was about, Stu responded by explaining all three videos released for Rats’ Nest: “The film clip for ‘Planet B’ and the film clip for ‘Self-Immolate,’ and we’re going to do another one as well, they all sort of tie into this theme that we, as a species, are killing ourselves, essentially. We’re digging our own graves, but we’re actually going down laughing, and it’s a disturbing combination. Generally, we are all like, ‘This is scary, the permafrost is melting,’ but we’re actually not scared. Everyone is kind of happy and going about living their lives. Maybe that’s embedded in our nature to be like that, but it’s kind of an interesting observation. I think that’s the kind of lynchpin behind all those videos.”
A shot of the band on fire would be used for the gatefold design on vinyl editions of the album. For the band’s show poster on 2019-08-24, the video is referenced multiple times. A print of Zagan in the Mitsubishi Lancer was sold by PHC Films in late 2020.
Following the song’s release, the band would reference the lyrics of “Self-Immolate” on the tracks “The Hungry Wolf of Fate” and “Magma.” The song was also briefly used in season two of the TV show The Purge.
“Self-Immolate” initially gave the band some issues with Eric mentioning that it was hard to learn but the song made its live debut on 2019-06-26 during a surprise show at Howler in Naarm (Melbourne) and would be played at most shows in 2019, taking a spot wherever needed, although it was a prominent opener. A performance from 2019-06-28 would be featured (albeit incomplete) in Live at the Forum Melbourne. For the film Chunky Shrapnel which documented the 2019 European tour, “Self-Immolate” would be used in a teaser trailer uploaded on April 2nd, 2020. While a performance and soundcheck of the song from 2019-10-05 would appear in film, they were incomplete and never included on the film’s soundtrack. Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, “Self-Immolate” was still played regularly, a trend which continued even after the lockdowns. While versions up to this point don’t stray far from the studio version outside of a potentially longer intro and some pipe organ additions from Ambrose, in 2022 the song was updated to include a longer drum solo from Cavs. This remained commonplace going forward and the band further experimented with longer outros (2024-05-16) as well as longer intros (2024-11-01).
Outside of the band, the song would be played at Cavs’ first drum seminar at Drumtek in Northcote, Victoria.