Plans for fourth album

Initial plans after wrapping up touring in support of Final Conversation of Kings involved writing and demoing material for a fourth album in 2010 and releasing it in early 2011. The band would also tour during this time, performing the “Four Wheels and a Heartbeat” tour in 2010, where they even played new material, most notably a track entitled “Five Golden Rings” in full. Despite this, the band would privately struggle to work on the album for over three years. The band went through extended periods of tension and frustration, with members, most notably Boge with the rest of the band, not getting along. Boge desired for the band to return to their heavier, earlier sound of the initial EP and Begins Here album. Conversely, the rest of the band wanted to push forward even further into progressive territory, as they had with Final Conversation of Kings album, and incorporate further unconventional instruments for rock music into their songs, such as mandolin or bells .