It was produced by Andrew Wade and is the first and only release by the band with drummer Justin Salinas, yet final with bassist Nicholas Urlacher and keyboardist, Dusty Riach.

With anticipation of their full-length debut album after releasing the EP, Empire during the previous year,[2] The Word Alive began work on Deceiver after several US tours.

Crediting Nick Johns aka "Nicky Scene" for the content in a majority of the album "We wanted to step it up in every aspect of our songs compared to Empire.

A deluxe edition of Deceiver was released on June 7, 2011, and contains two previously unreleased tracks; "Apologician" and "Lights and Stones" along with the group's two cover songs; "Heartless" and "Over the Mountain".

Where the album gets interesting is in the guitar acrobatics of Tony Pizzuti and Zack Hansen, who like to keep things lightning fast and intricate" and "for anyone looking for metalcore with a couple of surprises here and there, Deceiver should offer a little something new.

"[1] Alternative Press stated "the relentless drive of so many of the songs found on Deceiver have an urgency and added aggression to them that would make many of their peers recoil out of fear.

rated the album positively calling it: "Deceiver stands forward as a debut that in ways has in fact surpassed all expectations and hype built upon it, showing The Word Alive as a band who want to and should be heard.

Lambgoat referred to the singing as "Estrogen enhanced emo [vocals]" and gave it a negative review while stating "Just when you think they've sunk to the deepest depths of commercial mall-metal, the fast guitar flurries are re-re-remixed with stupid sounding synths.