"Live to Rise" was the first Soundgarden song to be both fully recorded and released since the band reformed in 2010, as "Black Rain" was partly recorded in the early 1990s.The single has been described as a "riff-heavy rocker" that, according to Chris Cornell, would "work just fine" on the band's then-upcoming album King Animal, even though it did not necessarily represent the entire album's sound. Despite earlier speculation, "Live to Rise" never appeared on King Animal.