Emerging from Sacramento, California, in the late 1990s, metalcore band Embrace the End underwent marked sonic development alongside repeated shifts in personnel. Their opening EP, It All Begins with One Broken Dream, appeared in 2001 on Dark Vision Records, while the debut full-length Counting Hallways to the Left followed in 2005 via Abacus. Vocalists Jesse Alford and Pat Piccolo, guitarists Joel Adams and Kyle Dixon, bassist Ryan Lewis, and drummer Bart Mullis then completed several demanding tours across the United States, although the strain ultimately reduced the roster to Alford and Mullis alone by the time the pair returned to California. Even so, the remaining members landed a deal with Century Media, and the resulting second album, Ley Lines, was tracked with guitarist Chris McMahon and bassist Addison Quarles; the record revealed Embrace the End growing more exploratory by weaving math-metal intensity into their already technical metallic hardcore foundation.
