 Ensign had emerged from a period of personnel turmoil to record this album and it was left to the bassist and main songwriter, Nate Gluck, to also take up the job of the guitarwork.The result was a more refined offering which moved sufficiently away from hardcore punk to be recognised in the same circle as some metalcore bands while still retaining the theatrical restraint and lyrical ethics of the hardcore genre.The songs were still short, although many were nearer the three-minute mark than ever before – resulting in the band's longest album ever – but they had more structure and melodic elements than material on either "Cast the First Stone" or "Direction of Things to Come".