Chamberlain was asked to join them but he rejected the offer because he was busy with This Runs Through. After he was told Underoath would otherwise have to cancel the shows, he temporarily joined the band for a few performances. Chamberlain was invited to practice with Underoath when This Runs Through were ending, and asked again to become a member of the band. Recording Chamberlain officially joined Underoath in January 2004, and a month later, they recorded their next album. Underoath had worked with producer James Paul Wisner on their past two albums and wanted to work with someone else. They had two other producers in mind but due to timing conflicts, the opted to work with him again. Wisner acted as engineer at recording sessions in his home studio Wisner Productions in Florida. Throughout the making of the album, the members paid rent to stay at Wisner's house. His neighbor repeatedly banged on the door because the room in which Underoath were recording guitars shared a wall with the neighbor. The band learned the neighbor was a nurse and worked nights; the band switched rooms and had to re-record half of the songs. Keyboardist Christopher Dudley said the guitars were subsequently redone four times and two-to-three times for the bass guitar. He mentioned that they wanted to distance themselves away from the "really clean, polished sounding" material of Wisner's past production work, "but [They're Only Chasing Safety] still has that polished feel to it". Matt Goldman recorded programming and Aaron Marsh's additional vocals. Chamberlain and Gillespie damaged their voices during the recording, and Gillespie was briefly hospitalized with blisters on his tonsils. J.R. McNeely mixed the recordings at Compound Studios in Seattle, Washington, and the album was mastered by Troy Glessner at Spectre Studios. Composition and lyrics Overview The output of Underoath has been described as metalcore. According to Alex Henderson of AllMusic, "this screamo/post-hardcore/melodic hardcore approach is quite different from full-fledged metalcore; while metalcore units like Hatebreed, Brick Bath, and Finland's notoriously ferocious Rotten Sound go right for the jugular, Underoath and similar bands prefer to mix honey with vinegar". Andrew Segal of Cross Rhythms described the album as nu metal, and said it is on the heavier side of the rock scale, is well produced and "shows more signs of intelligence than the [nu-metal] genre is often credited with". Andrew Sacher, writing for Brooklyn Vegan, referred to