The song's main influence comes from Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the title itself also comes from a line from the book in which Raoul Duke, the alter-ego pseudonym of Thompson himself, is on his way to Las Vegas while being affected by various drugs, and thus hallucinates, seeing huge bats and manta rays in the sky. With this, he gasps to his companion and attorney, Dr. Gonzo, "We can't stop here. This is bat country."

The following quote, also included at the beginning of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is referred twice throughout the song (at the beginning and the bridge before the last chorus) and is shown at the beginning of the music video.

"He who makes a beast [out] of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson

Also referenced in the song, is a lyric derived from the final words spoken about Dr. Gonzo at the end of the film adaptation. The lyric is used at the end of both "soft" sections of the song, directly before the solo, and the final lyric of the song.

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." - Raoul Duke

The song has been used in several video games including EA Sports' NHL 06, Madden NFL 06, SSX on Tour, Saints Row 2, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and as downloadable content for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. The song is featured on the soundtrack to the extreme mountain bike film New World Disorder 7: Flying High Again.

The song appeared on an episode of the FOX TV series Bones entitled "The Superhero in the Alley"

The music video resembles parts of the movie Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. The video for this song shows various symbolic images and references to the above-mentioned Thompson book. The song centers around the band performing in a hotel room, surrounded by exotic dancers. There are also cuts to a scene in which the band is driving down a barren highway in a bat-winged Cadillac convertible, surrounded by a cloud of bats (who are being swatted by Zacky and The Rev). While in the car they see Johnny Christ on the side of the road trying to get a ride, and they pick him up. During the "soft" section, the band appears at a strip club, surrounded by snake-tongued strippers. Also, it's implied that the video is partially a hallucinaton.

If one were to examine closely, the words on M. Shadows' shirt appear to change between "Why Disneyland" and "If you have Amsterdam". The shirt actually says "Why Disneyland if you have Amsterdam?" at one point in the song. It changes back afterward. During Synyster Gates' and Zacky Vengeance's guitar solo/duo, the bats that fly into the sky are sometimes not there. The regular people sometimes appear to have a disfigured face. During the video's commentary by Avenged Sevenfold on their All Excess DVD, the band says that the bats hallucination was actually due to a lack of funds. However, whether or not they were being serious or joking is not clarified.

The music video, which was filmed around Las Vegas, still receives considerable airplay on many channels. As Shadows says, the band members live close to Las Vegas. Synyster Gates commented at 2:47, 'You put all of us in the car, and that's basically what you have.'