It sold around 4,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at number 138 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The drums were recorded in Los Angeles and engineered by Logan Mader, who also mixed and mastered the album.

[3] Joe Duplantier revealed to Total Guitar magazine that the album deals with their vision about life and death.

[4] Randy Blythe from the American band Lamb of God appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Adoration for None."

The song "The Art of Dying" is a reference to the Buddhist concept of rebirth, and features introspective lyrics.

If backmasked, the section would bear a resemblance to the song "Esoteric Surgery", which is then repeated at the end of that very next track.

On 6 October 2008, a music video was released for the song "Vacuity", produced by Julien Mokrani and Samuel Bodin.

[6] The video was shot near the band's hometown in France, and starred the Duplantiers' cousin, actress Claire Theodoly.

Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic wrote that "by the time it finally emerged in late 2008, Gojira's fourth full-length successfully met most all of the understandably heightened expectations head on".

Writing for Blabbermouth.net, Keith Bergman described the album was "more opaque than anything — oppressive and suffocating in its world-enveloping tone, massive and clanking in rhythm, giving up its dynamic secrets only after hard, painful slogs through the frozen mire of its glowering groan.