 After finishing the album , Townsend stated the project was " punishing " and an " absolute nightmare to complete " due to amount of material against tight schedules . He also described the hardship of the project by telling " if he was ever going to start drinking [ again ] , the last months would have been it " , but now " he 's starting to get excited again " . Later , " after the chaos of finishing it had subsided " , Townsend stated he is really satisfied with the result . 
