74 on the Billboard 200 charts and sold 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release (according to Nielsen SoundScan).

[6] The album would be the band's final release under Roadrunner Records and the only one to feature Kevin Talley on drums.

Band member Chris Spicuzza described the album as "the next natural step from Impossibility of Reason .

He noted its deemphasise on melodic tracks, alluding to the 2003 song "Down Again", and described the writing process as having "zero limitations".

The tracks "Clayden" and "Malignant" are covers of Ascension songs.