After recovering from a burnout, a writer's block and some personal problems during the year of 2017, lead vocalistSharon den Adel felt able again to write for Within Temptation and entered the studio again. On 14 September 2018, the band announced a new album for a sooner release and revealed "The Reckoning" as the first song and first single of it. Later that month, a music video for the song was officially released. The song features Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach as a featured vocalist. He was invited to provide his vocals after the song was already completed, as the band thought that Shaddix could provide the song a certain anger mixed with some vulnerability and melancholy. Musically, it differs from some of the band previous works, as it features a combination of more electronic elements and heavier riffs than usual. It features alternative metal influences and contains heavy riffs from an eight-string guitar. Regarding the symphonic elements of the songs, for which the band is mostly known for, the group opted to use only where they found it would have an impact instead of in the whole song, in order to offer a bigger showcase of the other instruments and den Adel's vocals. Lyrically, the song takes inspiration from political contemporary themes such as technology and the dangers of a possible loss of freedom, a subject also not frequently addressed by the band. On 26 June 2020, an episode of WWE Smackdown used this song in a tribute video to the retiring wrestler The Undertaker, which was then posted on the WWE YouTube Account retrieving over 900,000 views in the first two days.
Music video
The official music video for the song was directed by German agency Noise and produced by Timescope production company. It was shot on the island of Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands. The video places the band on a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, where the members are seen walking through a desert-like landscape with white flags and torches. As they reach a spot with a great number of big machine pillars pointed to the sky, the band manages to run through the middle of them, as the machines starts moving and shooting red laser beams at the group. Two are left behind, as the other three proceed walking through the scenery. As a red light is seen on the sky, a giant spaceship appears. Two members run to different sides, as lead vocalist den Adel is hit with a red light and falls on her knees to the ground. When almost getting abducted, the two remaining members hit their white flags on the ground causing a display of blue energy, which ends up striking the spaceship on both sides. As the spaceship starts to fall to the ground, both men and den Adel stare at its fall and destruction.
