The band's seventh studio album, "Emperor of Sand", was released on March 31, 2017. The theme for the album was cancer, inspired by Troy's wife who was diagnosed with cancer, and Bill's mother who lost her life to cancer. It details the story of a traveller banished to the desert by an emperor, in effect giving him a death sentence. The story is a metaphor for someone diagnosed with terminal cancer. The first single, "Show Yourself", was released in February, and had peaked at number 4 on the US "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Songs chart in June, making it the band's highest charting song to date. The second single, "Steambreather", peaked at number 18 on the same chart in October.