Most of the music was written and rehearsed before the band entered the studio, however much of the symphonic keyboard sections were composed in the studio at the time of recording as the band did not then have a permanent keyboard player. Some of the lyrics on the final version of the album were partially written by Mortiis before he left the band. Samoth has suggested that the frequent use of the word emperor in the lyrics became a kind of metaphor, for our own entity, for the dark lord, for the devil, for the strong and mighty. Samoth has cited the power of Norwegian nature as a key inspiration on Emperor's music and this album in particular. They also expressed a fascination with the Viking age, Tolkien's literature, the story of Dracula, as well as everything related to Transylvania, the Carpathian Mountains, the dark corners of Eastern Europe, and folklore. Ihsahn, however, has explained that he never read much of Tolkien's work, although he consciously made use of the language and imagery of fantasy.