Regarding the sessions, frontman Chris Cornell said, "At the time Hiro had excommunicated himself from the band and there wasn't a free-flowing system as far as music went, so I ended up writing a lot of it." Cornell would end up solely writing seven out of the album's twelve tracks. Cornell stated that there "was plenty of angst, anger, frustration and hell ... but none of it had anything to do with Terry. He was very supportive". He said that the sessions as a whole were a "positive experience." Bassist Hiro Yamamoto left the band once the sessions were over and went back to college, frustrated that he was not contributing much.