The band's drummer, Paul Monroe, joined the group shortly before recording for XYZ began.

Monroe stated that his and guitarist Marc Diglio's relatively newer presence in the band had a significant impact on the band's sound and songwriting; Monroe stated in a 2022 interview that although he did not compose a lot of the band's guitar riffs or lyrics, he was tasked with coming up with "cool endings, and sometimes beginnings" of songs, contributing to arrangements and transitions, and composing the rhythm sections for solos.

One of the obstacles XYZ encountered during the album's production phase was that the lead vocalist, Terry Ilous, had a strong French accent that caused some of his words to be indecipherable to Dokken.

"[3] Dokken stated that his experience working with XYZ on their first album deterred him from accepting an offer to work with the band on their third unreleased album, what was supposed to be the successor to 1991's Hungry (which Dokken also did not participate in producing).

gave the album 3 stars, stating that they found it to be "a well-delivered album," although they negatively noted the band's similarities to Dokken, likening Diglio's guitar playing to George Lynch's style and Terry Ilous's vocals to Don Dokken's vocals.

[2] All tracks are written by Terry Ilous, Marc Richard Diglio and Pat Fontaine, except noted.