 Speaking about the song's "New Abuse mix", Slipknot bassist Paul Gray explained that "On the album version there were some kind of weird vocal effects on some of the parts, and we took them out and just had Corey [Taylor] sing", adding that a section of the song had to be removed in order to make it suitable for radio airplay.The single release was later delayed to July 8, with live recordings of "The Heretic Anthem" and "(sic)" from a show in Stockholm, Sweden on January 22 featured as B-sides.The music video for "My Plague" is made up of a combination of clips from "Resident Evil" and footage from the band's performance at London Arena on February 16, 2002, the entirety of which was later featured on the band's second video album "Disasterpieces" released in November.