Evanescence entered the studio on February 22, 2010 to begin recording and chose Steve Lillywhite to produce the album. Will Hunt joined Evanescence as a drummer while Will "Science" Hunt participated as a programmer and secondary drummer. Despite his collaboration with Lee on most songs of the album, he eventually didn't join the band. The album was initially more electronic music-oriented and slated for a late 2010 release. However, according to Lee, Lillywhite "wasn't the right fit" and the music "wasn't coming together right". He was eventually replaced by producer Nick Rasculinecz and the band started over with writing new material and developing songs from the previous session.