It is best known for spawning the hit "Lay Down", which was included in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, elevating the band's profile drastically.

Lead singer and guitarist Mikey Heppner had formed the punk rock group the Dropouts in the early 2000s merely as a way of having fun performing at shows,[1] but after all his bandmates left for New York City to perform as the successful rock band the Stills full-time,[2] he had an epiphany that he could take his own music more seriously, achieve that kind of success, and still have as much fun as he hoped.

This, coupled with his first exposure to Tricky Woo (which he enjoyed for their resemblance to Black Sabbath and Deep Purple),[1] led him to re-establish the Dropouts with a different musical style - hard rock - and a more earnest pursuit of success.

[9] The producer employed such things as shakers, tambourines, and vocal treatments, and Heppner has also stated that piano was occasionally used on the album for its "percussive" quality.

While initially liking the idea,[7] Heppner later described the album as merely being twelve of their songs in recorded form,[11] and not actually intended to represent the group's live sound; the band pride themselves on their concert performances the most.

"[5] The songs follow typical verse-chorus-verse structures, which Watchorn noted the band felt the need to transcend to some extent with their songwriting for Prior to the Fire.

[3] The Fanzine's Richard Parks, interviewing Mikey Heppner, noted that many of the album's lyrics were threatening in some way; in addition to the aforementioned references to death, other songs have dark subtexts.

"Time Will Cut You Down" has a straightforward message of "one frustrated person warning someone else", according to Heppner, while "Talk to Her" seemed according to Parks to be a distorted take on the Beatles song "She Loves You".

[5] The album's closing song, "Blood", was written and sung by drummer Vince Nudo,[3] who is an avid vampire mythology enthusiast.

Intentionally leaving the song open to interpretation as to whether the conflict depicted is a literal one, Nudo said, "I think everyone has encountered a vampire (off the screen or pages of a book).

Roper had previously designed a T-shirt for Priestess, so the band had established a rapport with him by that point and after Heppner made the request (supplying the key words "crazy, sunset, weird, landscape, mountains, trippy"), he was able to create the new cover art on short notice.

[18] Prefix writer Zach Hothorn, giving the album a 6.0 out of 10, considered "Time Will Cut You Down" as "a nice reprieve from the incessant open-A Angus Young riffing", and criticized "Blood" as "sound[ing] like an afterthought" and compared it to Queens of the Stone Age.

[20] IGN's Chad Grishow gave a mixed review of 6.6 out of 10 and explained that "Two Kids" (mistakenly identifying Heppner as singing lead vocals on that song) and "Blood" (which he said sounded like a "completely different band" and would have been most fitting as a B-side) were the best tracks on the album, but that Priestess were inferior to like-minded "retro sound[ing]" contemporaries Wolfmother.

AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia reviewed the album favorably and gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, enjoying the traces of classic rock influence he heard and only criticizing the finale "Blood" for being too evocative of Queens of the Stone Age.

[22] Bullz-Eye also noted the unwitting Queens of the Stone Age homage with "Blood"; reviewer James Eldred otherwise commended Priestess for having "recognizable riffs and chords" in the vein of "Smoke on the Water" and "Iron Man", scoring the record 4 out of 5 stars.

[23] Drawing many comparisons to classic rock acts such as Black Sabbath, Def Leppard and AC/DC, Michael Alan Goldberg of the Metro Times heavily praised the band's work on Hello Master, often specifically for having skills comparable to such acts (and also noting that Heppner's vocals bear resemblance to those of Chris Cornell's older work) without being frozen in the past.

[37] The following year, Priestess still added to their rigorous US touring schedule, as they supported Converge and Mastodon in concert from late January to February 2007.

[28] Priestess released a music video for "Run Home" in July 2006,[39] and for "Lay Down" in September, the latter directed by Wendy Morgan of Revolver Productions.