Over the past decade, Wilton and Rockenfield had written songs for previous Queensrÿche albums that Tate discarded in favor of songs he wrote with outside writers, such as Jason Slater. However, they chose not to use them for this album, according to Wilton "because there was such a renewed inspiration in the band. (...) I might go revisit [the demos] sometime, but for this album I wanted it all fresh and new." Wilton has also said: "Songs were often written in a day." It became a collaborative effort without any involvement from outside writers, unlike the group's final albums with Tate. Dutch metal magazine Aardschok co-founder "Metal Mike" van Rijswijk says that during the Alcatraz Metal Festival on August 12, 2012, La Torre let him hear 17 demos they were working on, and he discovered that "many of the fast-paced 'Queen of the Reich'-like tracks didn't make the album", in favor of the more mid-tempo songs that would have fitted well on Operation: Mindcrime or Empire.
