"[3] When the band announced the album on March 20, 2024, and its first single, "Where The Light Fades", vocalist and guitarist Brett Campbell told Speakeasy PR: "These songs are a deeper exploration of dynamics and sonic color than anything we have done up to this point.

When we started showing each other the songs we were like, 'This could be a themed collection of short stories,' because they're all dealing with neuroses, or depression, or isolation, or manic breakdown delusions, or getting caught by dangerous ideas that lead you down that path."

A motif borrowed from videos like Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" is evident, where Brett is isolated against a black background, directly engaging the viewer with a heartfelt vocal performance is also prominent.

Blabbermouth.net contributor Dom Lawson call the album the band's "most radical to date", emphasizing that they "have learned that silence is the most powerful noise of all, and their mastery of the space between the excruciatingly quiet and the punishingly loud is total.

"[8] More analytically, Alex Deller of Metal Hammer wrote that the band has "not done away with the crunch entirely, but quiet restraint is now the name of the game, and those thumps to the back of the head are tempered by prog, synths, sax and slowcore.