“Behemoth” by August Burns Red song meaning: breaking traumatic cycles to build a new identity

August Burns Red, fronted by HeartSupport founder Jake Luhrs, has released Season of Surrender on June 5, 2026. The new album is packed with powerful songs about mental health and finding meaning through surrendering to the process of healing rather than fighting it. Season of Surrender is a shock to the system, compelling listeners to leave behind stagnation or regret.

This powerful set of songs is led by “Behemoth,” which takes a swing at one of the most difficult topics to address: childhood trauma. 

What events inspired “Behemoth?”

Jake Luhrs has been in a deep process of personal and spiritual growth that inspired “Behemoth” and Season of Surrender as a whole.

“I have spent most of my life in a very performance-based behavior due to the way that I was raised as a kid,” Jake reveals. “Both of my parents were workaholics. So when I saw that, I thought that I had to perform in order to receive love and respect and honor.”

That has led to a lot of positive things that Jake has accomplished, including the founding of HeartSupport. He also started YourLife Gym in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which focuses heavily on whole-person health. August Burns Red has always been the throughline, a metalcore monolith that has been drawing people into its music for two decades.

“I build things that attract community,” Jake says simply. “I realized that I've worked so hard on loving other people, but I wasn't doing that for myself. I wasn't working on some of the issues that I've had in my life. And there are other things that I did work on, but I realized that I had some traumatic experiences when I was a kid, and they dictated the direction and the path that I would go and how I would see myself. So the past two years, I really took a hard look in the mirror to ask, ‘Who am I, and who do I want to be, and am I living out my purpose?”

Those questions took on a sense of deep urgency when Jake endured sudden losses. 

He says, “I had two friends pass away. One died of cancer, and then, within three or four weeks of my friend passing away from cancer, my other friend took his life. That was a wake-up call, too, because I realized that life is short, and it's fragile. Both of those people really shared with me about spending time in the things that matter most and give you a sense of purpose, and then standing up for what you believe in, no matter the situation. That made me question, like, what am I doing here?”

Those questions required careful assessment for Jake, looking at where he had landed in life and if it aligned with where he wanted to be. For him, that happened through the lens of his faith. 

“My faith is very important. It's really helped me have strength in times that I've needed it,” he explains.

What is the meaning of the song “Behemoth?”

With “Behemoth,” Jake Luhrs faces the pain of his past head-on in order to embrace the more whole, healed life that he began to identify he wanted.

“I was really struggling with my life due to some unhealed stuff from my past. That’s what prompted these lyrics. I was going on this journey of a season of surrender, having to submit the things that I held really close to my heart to God, to face those things,” Jake explains. “With “Behemoth,” the whole lyric is really about my trauma and all of the hurtful things that happened to me as a child. It was kind of like evil coming in and being my father. Evil took me and said, ‘I'm going to teach you how to live your life.’ The pain was directing me toward how I was going to live my life.”

“Behemoth” takes a powerful turn when it names the truth: no one has to stay captive to their trauma, living reactively to it forever. Everyone has the ability to surrender to a new, healed identity.

Jake continues, “The middle section of the lyrics was when I gave that pain to God. I looked at that pain and realized what it was, and then I pursued healing so that I no longer am a son of the Behemoth. I'm no longer the son of this evil force in my life. Now I'm more who I was intended to be, and there's so much good in me. I'm going to live out of that place. So now, instead of becoming the son of death, I am the adversary of death.”

Being the adversary of death and evil doesn’t mean taking out any kind of negative intent on people. For Jake, it means consistently shedding light in the lives of those around him.

“I don't think that evil is a person,” he’s quick to clarify. “I think evil is a force, and I think there's a lot of broken and hurting people out there that do broken things, hurtful things, to themselves and to other people. My way of combating evil in the world is to help people get better, because if you can be healed of your hurt and your pain and the darkness that has been in your life, you will have more light, more spirit, more love, bear more good fruit.”

Jake Luhrs making that decision has created a branch in the path from here on out.

“If you're familiar with generational strongholds or family cycles, there's a lot of addiction in my family. There's a lot of verbal abuse and physical abuse. It can just go down the line. And so by finding healing, you're able to break the cycle. If you were raised where people told you that this is who you are, and you believe that, but then you stop believing those things? You're cutting the cycle right there, because you're not going to live that identity out. That's kind of the turning point in the song, where it's like, ‘I'm going to suffocate to end the suffering.’ And now, because I'm doing that, there's no more false identity, there's no more misplaced priorities.”

What does the title “Behemoth” mean?

The title “Behemoth” immediately conjures an image of a mythical, monstrous creature, perhaps one that you would have to face on a quest. That’s why the title was chosen to represent Jake’s own massive, lurking, unaddressed trauma, and the person it was creating him to be until he interrupted the cycle.

“We thought it was just to be able to conceptualize the darkness and depth of how big and monstrous basically my life could have been, what I was being nurtured to be,” Jake explains. “I've thought about that a lot of times throughout my own life. I just feel so grateful that God has taught me to use my gifts for good things, because I do have gifts, and I know them. So creating a nonprofit for mental health or a gym that helps people with their mental and physical well-being is a good way for me to use my gifts, versus other ways that I could have used them.”

In this way, Jake has defeated his own personal behemoth.

He adds, “I don't think that I would've done these things had I not met God, had I not chosen to let go of resentment and forgive people. If we let our past continue to fester and grow within us, any hurt or pain or resentment, that's going to do something with our hands at some point, and with our mouths. I wanted to give the imagery of how powerful I was intended to be for darkness — and I chose against it instead.”

How does “Behemoth” fit into the album Season of Surrender?

“With this record and this time, I think what I'm trying to leave them with is the understanding that there's a choice to be made,” Jake explains. “If you don't make a choice, you've made your choice. The record isn't really a concept album, but it does have a consistent lyrical undertone. The topics range from the perspective of the person who is going through the experience. There's a song about self-sabotage, and it's from the perspective of the one who is self-sabotaging. There's one on narcissism, that's through the eyes of a narcissist. There's one about someone who's betrayed someone, who's committed an affair, and that's through the eyes of that person who had the affair.”

The singer continues, “There are all of these topics that I feel grief about, all these topics that people experience. In a lot of those, there's a decision to be made in the lyric. There's a turning point, maybe, or there's a moment where you have clearly recognized something about yourself, and now there is a choice to be made.”

“Behemoth” is a prime example of that turning point moment, the decision to take a different route and change your own life — and the lives of everyone you encounter — forever. 

“Season of Surrender is an invitation to understand that there's a decision, there's a choice to make in your life. And I tried to go for an array of different perspectives of experiences because I want to reach as many people as I possibly can.”

What is August Burns Red’s message on mental health right now?

“I want to help people find healing for the dark in their life or to be freed of that darkness so that they can become a light and that they can become the unique individual person that they were created and intended to be,” Jake says clearly. “That’s the way that I fight evil on this earth. I use HearSupport for that, and I use my gym for that, and I use my lyrics and music for that.”

Through his years supporting mental health as an advocate, singer, and nonprofit founder, Jake Luhrs has also found a lot of practical tools for moments of decision in the healing journey.

“If you're in a dark room, sometimes it's scary to open the door because the light? You're not familiar with it,” Jake says as he leads into offering practical wisdom. “You don't know that it's really what you want to go toward, because you feel so comfortable in the dark. So some of the things that I'm going to mention are that light, but light can be scary because you don't know what it is until you touch it, until you invite it in or act it out.”

Jake recognizes that because of that, different people will need to start at different places when they want to change their life and their mental health for the better.

Mental Health Step 1 from Jake Luhrs: Tell Someone

“Tell somebody what you're going through, somebody that you can trust, somebody that you look up to, somebody that you admire, somebody that you know is going to be a safe place for you to share. Just verbally expressing it can take so much weight off of you. Then you know that there's someone who cares, somebody who wants to be there for you, somebody who is good at listening.”

Mental Health Step 2 from Jake Luhrs: Journal About It

“Journal and write it down. Now it's physically here. You've written out what you're thinking and how you feel. Listen to yourself. 

For me, with faith, I invite God into the conversation in my mind because I personally want that. But if you don't want to do that, just speak to yourself and ask yourself, ‘Hey, how do I feel about this? Why do I feel this way? And what thoughts and things come up?’ Or if there are things that trigger you, write them down. ‘I saw this, and it really made me feel like I needed to run away,’ or ‘I need to fight back,’ or whatever that might be. Write that down, because you need to understand a little more as to why you're operating the way that you're operating.

“The more you get to learn about yourself, the better you're going to feel because you're like, ‘Hey, I'm actually caring about me right now.’ I tell this to all my buddies that are running businesses or in bands: if you are not mentally healthy, you don't know how to regulate your emotions, you don't know when to rest, or you don't know what rest looks like, you're combating all of these things that are triggering you, or your past is haunting you — you're not going to be able to fulfill your life. 

“So we've got to get rid of that. And so when we better understand why we feel that way, what is triggering us, or what it was in the past that we can finally get a hold of and say, ‘Hey, this is actually a problem still in my life,’ it gives you the power.”

Mental Health Tip 3 from Jake Luhrs: Reading

“When you get down to that journaling, and it's like, ‘Oh my gosh, I was abused as a child, and I need to be healed of this.’ Once you figure out what it is that you really need help with, go on Amazon and look up some books. I mean, you can get help within two business days. Read it whenever you feel like it, and you can journal as you're reading that book. 

“Reading is so powerful, and it's peaceful because you don't have your phone on you. No one's talking to you. You're by yourself, you're loving and caring for yourself so that you can be better for those around you. And you're being educated on the thing that you need.”

Mental Health Tip 4 from Jake Luhrs: Exercise

“Exercise is just really good for me, because I see it as a way of caring for my body. I see it as a way of releasing stress and anxiety. I’m sweating, so all the toxins are getting out of my body. I see my body changing, and it's transforming, it's becoming healthier. That's good for me, because when I see that I'm dedicated and I'm disciplined to get myself well physically, I know I can apply the same thing to anything else I want in my life. So if that's trauma, or if that's a business decision, or if that's being in the band and doing something with that, exercise is a good tool. You're telling yourself, ‘Hey, I'm worth it, and I need to value me.’ And it's the only body that you have on this earth. 

“I think that that's a really good way of being able to release some of that frustration or anxiety when you're triggered or when you're going through something.”

Season of Surrender is streaming on all major platforms now, and you can find it at https://agstbrnsrd.ffm.to/sos. Find all things August Burns Red, including where to see them touring in support of the album, at https://lnk.bio/augustburnsred. 

“Behemoth” music video and lyrics

I met Death in my youth
He claimed me as his son
He echoes in my mind
Reminds me what I've done
The memories made me believe
Escape was never a path for me
I met Death in my youth
He called me the beloved one

Fearful of waking the giant
Destined to be the behemoth

Hushed cries suppressed by torment they cannot see
Blind eyes turned by those who should have protected me
If I held the world in my hands would the ache leave?
Dug deep into dirt that's filled with hate
Death will fear me

I had to suffocate to stop the suffering
I had to suffocate to stop the suffering
I had to suffocate to stop the suffering

Death will fear me
Death will fear me

No more false identity (No more)
No more misplaced priorities (No more)
No more death in the family (No more)
It ends with me

My legacy won't be one of shame and silence
(Or hate and violence)
(Hate and violence)

Your curse won't seal my fate
But it cost you everything

Your curse won't seal my fate
My resolve was deafening