“Trenches” by Pop Evil

"Trenches" was the opening shot from Onyx, Pop Evil's third album, posted by the band at the end of February 2013, and it did something none of their nine earlier singles had managed: that June it went to number one at rock radio nationwide. Singer Leigh Kakaty wrote it with Dave Bassett, and Johnny K produced.

The song is the third installment of a trilogy the band was rolling out in reverse order, and its message is blunt and practical: everybody is fighting something, so quit fretting over what you can't change and dig yourself out. Kakaty's theory was that a band only lasts if its audience can see itself in the songs, and this one is built on that idea, hard rock guitar verses swinging into big melodic choruses.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.