The album is based on the ancient Chinese military treatise, The Art of War written by General Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC.

It consists of 13 chapters, each of which describe a different aspect of warfare, and is considered the definitive work on military tactics and strategies of its time.

Spoken quotes from Sun Tzu's The Art of War can be heard in songs such as "Sun Tzu Says", "The Art of War", "Unbreakable", "The Nature of Warfare", "Cliffs of Gallipoli", "Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)", "The Price of a Mile", "Firestorm" and "A Secret".

At time of writing, "Unbreakable" was intended to describe a particular historical guerrilla warfare action; however, songwriters Joakim Brodén and Pär Sundström have since forgotten which one they were thinking of.

The title track was featured in the Sabaton Soundtrack DLC for the grand strategy game Europa Universalis IV.