The band have also explained the meaning of the song. "Nick [guitarist Nick Fyffe] phoned me up one time when I was trying to write a lyric to the song that became White Bear," says singer Phil Campbell.

"It was an experiment about the controlling of unwanted thoughts. You try not to think about a white bear, you think about a white bear all the time. You think about this thing all the time that you're trying not to think about."