 After some deliberation, however, Moreno and drummer Abe Cunningham successfully pushed for working with producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Kiss) and engineer Brian Virtue.Deftones then took a short break before planning a month-long tour with Dredg and C-Minus to road-test some material starting in San Francisco, California, and ending in Hartford, Connecticut, near where Ezrin's studio was located.Recording of the album began in November 2004.