Matthew Bellamy, lead singer for Muse, described the album to the BBC as "a modern metaphor for what it is to lose empathy ... through modern technology, and obviously through drone warfare in particular, it’s possible to actually do quite horrific things by remote control, at a great distance, without actually feeling any of the consequences, or even feeling responsible in some way."

Rolling Stone reports:

Bellamy first got the idea about two years ago when he read the book Predators: The CIA's Drone War on al Qaeda by Dartmouth professor Brian Glyn Williams. "I was shocked," he says. "I didn't know how prolific drone usage has been. I always perceived Obama as an all-around likable guy. But from reading the book, you find out that most mornings he wakes up, has a breakfast and then goes down to the war room and makes what they call 'kill decisions.' He makes that decision based on a long chain of intelligence people who, as we all know, can be very unreliable."

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