In December 2007, it was announced that Barlow would be rejoining Iced Earth after five years. Following his return, work continued on Iced Earth's next album, originally titled "Revelation Abomination: Something Wicked Part 2". Majority of the album's music had been recorded at the same time as "Framing Armageddon", and originally Schaffer had planned to finish the album after the end of 2007. However work on the album had to be pushed back, due to Barlow's prior commitments to his other band, Pyramaze. In early 2008, it was announced that Dennis Hayes had been replaced by bassist Freddie Vidales.