“Defender is actually about my Dad. I went through a situation over the course of the last two years that was difficult. I was really struggling and my Dad knew it. I was talking to him about it and my Dad, for the first time in my life, got mad on my behalf. I had always viewed love as a positive affection whether it’s a hug, a kiss, an ‘I love you, I care about you’ and for the first time in my life I think I saw a type of love that maybe wasn’t more profound, but equally as powerful. Seeing my Dad… the song says righteous wrath and that’s what it was. The idea that you’re hurting, you can hardly stand up on your own two feet; I’m going to hold you up. I’m in your court. I’m mad that someone else is cutting you down. I’m going to do something about it because I love you. As I was writing the song it was about someone I really cared about and on the other hand it was about my Dad. I was in the middle of these two people. The ‘deliver the sentence’ part is about the realisation that there’s no judge, no jury, no gavel to deliver it. Who will deliver the sentence? ‘A rock and a hard place sounds easy compared to this.’ I was in between two difficult things. There was no one to call the shots but me so that setup the breakdown. I never would’ve imagined that ‘who will deliver the sentence?’ is a line that would stand out on the album but I knew that as soon as I finished the song it would be a relatable lyric to a lot of people. In fact it’s what’s made us call the album Guardians. We picked a synonym of Defender – which as it turns out is Guardians.” – As described by Matt Greiner in an interview with Hysteria Mag,

AUGUST BURNS RED // Delivering The Sentence — Hysteria Magazine

April 2020. We're entering the fourth month of what is likely the most memorable year some of us will ever live. It is, without a stretch of the imagination, a period of time in which hope of a quick fix is beginning to fade and the realities of separation are setting in.