It is the last live recording to feature drummer Steve Negus.

The album compiles all 16 "Chapter" songs in live format in its correct order, which were originally released over eight studio albums starting in 1978 and concluding in 2003.

The studio versions were released over a 25-year period in a mixed-up order to create a conceptual puzzle.

The story was inspired by the Cold War, and the preservation of Albert Einstein's brain, which was kept by Thomas S. Harvey, M.D.

There are also science fiction themes, such as aliens being concerned with humanity's self-destruction, and the resurrection of the dead through technology.