 Following a suggestion by Donockley and Hietala, he replaced "Edema Ruh" with "Élan" as the album's first single.Although he was initially uncertain about recording "Yours Is an Empty Hope" (co-written by Hietala and also called one of the album's heaviest songs), Holopainen found its subject matter "inspirational".He refrained from explicating its lyrics because he did not want to "ruin" listener interpretations.