crates and glued foam to the walls to give the room better sound. He acted as producer and engineer with additional engineering by Mark Blewett. In November 2002, the group tracked "Anthem of Our Dying Day", "Until the Day I Die" and "Razorblades", which were the only songs they had at the time. However, before they planned to return to the studio, Haupt left the group over creative and personal reasons. The band spent the following seven weeks writing more music and searching for a new guitarist. They heard that guitarist Philip Sneed was on uncertain terms with his band Maybe Today. Sneed joined the group after flying out to California and practicing with the band. Accumulating 25–30 songs, the band returned to the studio in March or April 2003. They narrowed the choice of songs to ten after a week or two, and spent the following six weeks recording them. Sessions took place seven days a week, up to 15 hours per day. Feldmann informed the label that they should record in Hawaii. They subsequently recorded at Avex Studios in Waikiki, Hawaii, tracking strings for two songs. The group said they "spent 6 days in the sun and like 7 hours actually working." During the recording of "Falling Down", Wills was unable to play the song's beat. Feldmann didn't want to edit the drums to make it sound like a drum machine, so Marsala opted to play them instead. The track served as the end of the recording sessions, with Marsala playing all the instruments on it. Feldmann mixed the recordings at Foxy Studios, while Joe Gastwirt mastered them at Ocean View Digital Mastering. Toby Morse of H2O, Ray Cappo of Shelter and Feldmann sang guest vocals on "Falling Down". Feldmann also sang additional backings vocals on "And the Hero Will Drown", "Until the Day I Die", "Anthem of Our Dying Day" and "Razorblades". Marsala later criticized Feldmann's role, saying: "Feldmann had originally changed our sound. All of his records have the same sort of sound, because he's always using the same formulas on everything." Feldmann said the group, who were influenced by bands ranging from Pantera to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, wanted to sound heavier than the album's ultimate sound. He intended for the album to be highly vocal-driven. Marsala wanted it to be a metal record. Feldmann said people would not connect with that sound the