and Pro Tools operator Matt Squire; Bill Synan assisted the pair. Thrice then went to Salad Days Studios in Beltsville, Maryland, for six weeks across March and April 2003 to record the rest of the instruments. Breckenridge felt they were not prepared upon entering the studio, saying that he would often be writing his bass parts as he was recording them, which increased the pressure for McTernan. Kensrue had a few disagreements over lyrics with McTernan, who felt "really maxed out" while in the studio because he wrote most of them there. Having no time to rest, whenever Kensrue came up with a lyric, McTernan "would know that it wasn't the best I could do, and he would tell me". Guitarist Teppei Teranishi said they used to "just throw songs together", but for this album they spent more time on arranging the songs. Thrice struggled to record guitars for "Under a Killing Moon" because of problems with tuning, resulting in them re-recording the guitars. According to McTernan, Thrice added a megaphone to the second verse of "All That's Left" "literally 10 minutes before we had to fed-ex the song to be mixed". The strings on "Cold Cash and Colder Hearts" and "The Melting Point of Wax" were recorded at Phase Studios in College Park, Maryland. Charlie Barnett arranged and conducted the session, which involved musicians Marcio Bothello (cello), Osman Kivrak (viola), Teri Lazar (violin), Chris Shieh (violin) and Greg Watkins (double bass). Andy Wallace mixed the recordings at Soundtrack studios in New York City with assistance from Steve Sisco and Pro Tools operator Josh Wilbur. Howie Weinberg mastered the recordings at Masterdisk in New York City. The songs "Motion Isn't Meaning" and "Eclipse" were recorded during the sessions but were left off the finished album. Composition and lyrics The Artist in the Ambulance has been classified as melodic hardcore, post-hardcore, and emo. It drew comparisons to the work of Blindside. Jon Wiederhorn of MTV said the album blends "thrash metal, hardcore, emo and pop punk often within a single song". Fuse called the album a "post-hardcore landmark, one that coasted into the lanes of math-metal and, yes, even pop-punk just enough to appeal to a rainbow of fans". Teranishi called The Illusion of Safety the "anti-verse-chorus-verse record"; for The Artist in the Ambulance, they "realized that if something's good, it might be worth bringing back a second time". Breckenridge said