In the first major interview for the album, vocalist Levi Benton spoke with Jake Denning of Absolutepunk.net, going into a few of Denning's favorite tracks from the album, but also explained the background behind the album title:
"Well, it’s a very fan based record. All the lyrics are letters back from letters we’ve gotten from fans and haven’t been able to write back. There are some topics we haven’t faced, but things that have touched while reading letters in the past. We see many tattoos and crazy stuff with the lion and how much it means to fans. Basically the lion is a symbol for us and all of our fans, we just wanted to dedicate this to them. This is our follow-through record, and we think this is going to be a big one and a big fan-base growing album for us. This is the rise of the lion."
At Alternative Press, Phil Freeman rated the album four stars out of five, saying that "there's a definite humanity to the music" on the album that features "chugs and clean choruses all the throat-punching impact any fan could ask for": However, he writes that "Ultimately, this is a forceful, headlong album with no ballads or restful interludes among it 10 track", which is "sure to make fans very happy."[5]
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