The song was the first single released after the band's label transfer to
Pony Canyon and was used as the opening theme song for the anime Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2.[7] The release date of "The Rumbling" was not announced in advance, but the television edit version released unannounced on January 9, 2022, the day the first episode of the anime aired. The full version of the song was later announced to be released digitally on February 7, 2022.[8] The physical version was released on May 25, 2022, in
vinyl, limited to 5,000 copies worldwide.[9]
According to vocalist MAH, the song was made from May to June 2021 on
Pony Canyon offer after their transfer to the label. MAH and guitarist SHOW-HATE made 4 songs together since they knew Attack on Titan very well, then one of the songs entitled "The Rumbling" was chosen for the anime. Unlike their previous works, they decided to put
strings and
chorus to the song to keep the feeling of the previous theme songs of the anime while still retaining the band's musical style with
reggae part in the middle. They made the whole song to be up tempo then changed the rhythm to be slower.[14]
Music video
The music video for "The Rumbling" was released on March 2, 2022, after being teased with two short trailers three weeks before. Directed by Taiyo Yamamoto, it features the band performing the song in Attack on Titan setting.[15] As of April 2023, "The Rumbling" has over 40 million views on
YouTube.[16]
The band also released the official instrumental playthrough videos for drums, bass, and guitar on their YouTube channel.[17]
Commercial performance
The song became SiM's most commercially successful song, debuted at No. 3 on the US
Hot Hard Rock Songs chart, No. 15 on the US
Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, No. 30 on the US
Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart,[18] and No. 23 on the UK
Rock & Metal Singles chart[6] in its first week. It hit No. 1 on the US Hot Hard Rock Songs chart the following week and No. 13 on the US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart on the chart dated February 19.[5] The song also entered the US
Hard Rock Streaming Songs chart at No. 18 on January 27, 2022, with over 2.1 million US streams.[19] After the release of the full song, "The Rumbling" re-entered the US Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, jumped to No. 2.[20] It also debuted at No. 5 on the US
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles,[4] and No. 92 on the
Billboard Global 200 chart.[21] In the band's home country of Japan, it charted at No. 67 on the
Japan Hot 100[22] and No. 5 on the
Oricon Digital Singles chart, selling 8,065 downloads in its first week.[23]
^"デジタルシングル(単曲)ランキング" [Digital Single (Single Song) Chart] (in Japanese).
Oricon. February 21, 2022. Archived from
the original on February 16, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2022.