Graham confirmed that his approach was developed when the band played songs off of Nations to Flames during its tour with Converge prior to entering the recording studio.

[4] He further detailed the concept as a story humanity "realiz[ing] too late that the importance of their government, their nationalism, and their religions meant nothing in relation to the damage we are inflicting on our planet.

"[4] The concept extends to the album cover art, which portrays what Graham describes as "a small surviving group of revolutionaries [who] are biding time until their own demise.

"[4] Further to the concept, the CD insert references Margaret Atwood's 2009 short fiction, "Time Capsule Found On the Dead Planet", as suggested reading.

as the band's "best release to date", and also suggested that "the melancholic and atmospheric" post-rock elements had been "burned away by the mechanical heat of industrial and crushed by the relentless weight of doom".