A decade ago, Simon Neil and Mike Vennart would be found sitting on the back of the Biffy Clyro tour bus sharing the most extreme, confrontational or just downright twisted music they could find. Simon had always had the name Empire State Bastard lurking in the back of his mind if he ever formed a sickeningly heavy band, leaving Mike with the challenge of writing music that could live up to that moniker. Sprawling across the alt-metal landscape, the record's songs hit like a full-throttle collab between Siege and Slayer ('Stutter', 'Palm of Hands'), toy between mathy chaos and grindcore ferocity ('Blusher', 'Sold!') or lurch with slow motion stoner rock menace ('Sons And Daughters').