"VII: Sturm Und Drang" will be released in July via Epic in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Entertainment, with whom the band signed a record deal for all territories outside of North America. The CD was once again produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur with engineering by Wilbur, Nick Rowe and Kyle McAulay, and was recorded at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California and Suburban Soul Studios in Torrance, California.

 

The album's first single, "Still Echoes", was made available on May 18 via all digital retailers and streaming services.

 

Blythe told RollingStone.com that "Still Echoes" "is a history of [Prague's] Pankrác Prison," where he was incarcerated for over a month. The first line of "Still Echos" reads: "A thousand heads cut clean across their necks, right down the hall from me." Blythe says: "There was a guillotine right down the hall from me, from when the Nazis had the prison. From 1943 to 1945 they executed almost 2,000 people by the guillotine, because it was cheaper than shooting and quicker than hanging … They call it the Pankrác 'Saw Room' or the 'Axe Room. I sat there at night, and I’d think about all those dudes that got their heads chopped off— men and women — in that place not too far from me."