[2] Following the release of their ninth studio album, Foot of the Mountain, a-ha announced that they would retire as a band.

In 2015, however, the band announced that they would re-unite for a two-year period and release Cast in Steel, followed by a world tour to promote the album.

Initially Pål Waaktaar-Savoy and Morten Harket began recording the album in New York without Magne Furuholmen.

"[4] Furuholmen has said the reunion wasn't his decision: "The other two wanted to do it, and I had to decide: do I block it, let them do it without me, or make a fool of myself, with my statements about this being the end.

[14][15] Cast in Steel debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart, selling 7,828 copies in its first week.