in a january 2015 interview, lead vocalist todd la torre revealed that in february they would "hopefully" start tracking their next album. three months later, guitarist michael wilton spoke to interviewer jennifer kessinger at the 2015 welcome to rockville festival about the songwriting progress of the album, which was being recorded at the uberbeatz studio in washington with producer chris "zeuss" harris. wilton said that "it is everything that a fan of queensrÿche would want from the band" and stated that in more recent concerts and festivals, fans had expressed their satisfaction with the band's current line up. wilton revealed in a later interview that they had finished recording the album, and it was being in the process of being mixed and mastered before being sent off to their record label century media records. however, he did not reveal a title or release date.