When we last left NYC's most notorious machine rockers, they were at the tail end of a successful series of shows across the Northeast supporting their 1998 CMJ charting remix album, Pure Liquid Ego. A packed, utterly chaotic release party at the Bank in Manhattan featured blistering live versions of new tracks like "Missionary Man," as well as reworked favorites like "Cross," followed by a show at New York's now-legendary Coney Island High. The shows were well received, and critics raved about Ego and the 1997 debut, Whitelineoverride, with Outburn proclaiming they "…definitely look forward to hearing more from this band."

Years earlier, when word broke about the band's attitude-driven industrial anthems and the scathing live shows, they ran off to Chicago to work with such luminaries as Van Christie (Die Warzau), Chris Randall (SMG) and Jason McNinch (Pigface, Lick) at Warzone Recorders, leading to the startling '97 debut album, Whitelineoverride, released on Tinman.

In 1998 the band released the remix EP Pure Liquid Ego, which featured mixes from 16Volt, Crocodile Shop, Android Lust, and many others, including Mission U.K. frontman Wayne Hussey. Ego also contained four new songs - the product of a collaboration with legendary producer George Hagegorge (Urania and Under The Noise). Outburn called the album, "hard, heavy, and aggressive," and said, "This New York industrial rock band has a crossover sound that is headed in the right direction."

Despite the band's growing success, bust-ups, rows, M.I.A. members, and other assorted melodramas threatened to split The Aggression in half. Guitarist Mark Mohtashemi exiled himself to Los Angeles, while keyboardist Michael Hess found himself in trouble with the law in Boston, leaving original members F.J. DeSanto and Tom Whitfleet to appease both listeners and critics, while struggling to satisfy their greatest fans: themselves.

With the return of both estranged programmer/co-producer Mike "Ash" Venezia and keyboardist/co-writer Michael "The Kidd" Hess, DeSanto and Whitfleet decided to confront the myth of The Aggression head on by doing what the band has always been known for: great songwriting.