In 2003, Saves the Day signed to major label DreamWorks Records[1] and released In Reverie in September of that year.

[2] Frontman Chris Conley received a call from the band's A&R person at the label: "[H]e said, 'None of the programmers at radio are biting at the single, and MTV doesn't want to play the video, so we're going to have to start thinking about the next record.'

"[I] completely lost faith in myself" after the lack of success with In Reverie, "when that happened, a chamber got opened up inside me, a vault of seething despair".

[3] Following the completion of new songs in February 2005, the group planned to start recording in May, with a projected fall release date for the new album.

[5] On August 4, 2005, the band began pre-production, and the following day were "in full swing, blazing through songs in rehearsal" in preparation for recording.

The band called this material "short and fast and angry," citing several songs they were working on: "Head for the Hills," "Sound the Alarm," "Diseased" and "Eulogy".

[8] According to Conley, Sound the Alarm details the "furious truth of my aching heart, my tumultuous emotional landscape, and my fractured psyche.

[12] Describing the album's theme, Conley said it was "desolation, like you're the last person standing after the apocalypse and you're alone and you're cold.

[13] It drew overall comparisons to Hawthorne Heights, Hey Mercedes, Matchbook Romance,[14] Dead Boys and 7 Seconds,[18] with the guitar work recalling the Stooges and the Pixies.

[7] Conley's vocals were reminiscent of Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida with sneer in the vein of Sid Vicious.

[21] Conley described the opening track "Head for the Hills" as being "thoughts that creep up and swallow you, and you can't ignore the negative, the hell inside".

[3] It set the template for the remainder of the album in its mood, tempo and thick bass sound,[13] coming across as a combination of Bad Brains and the Stooges.

[22] "The End", along with "Say You'll Never Leave", channeled the band's earlier punk rock roots with its short length and fast pace.

[20] Immediately after finishing recording, the band went on a 47-date tour[7] with Senses Fail, The Early November, and Say Anything, lasting from October until December 2005.

The label had previously released the band's Stay What You Are (2001) and Ups & Downs: Early Recordings and B-Sides (2004) albums.

AllMusic reviewer Corey Apar viewed the album as a return to the "aggressive pop-punk nature" of Through Being Cool, "but ya know, five years more mature".

[13] Entertainment Weekly reviewer Leah Greenblatt considered the album is "as turgidly epic as the tenets of the genre demand" with the band having seemingly "rediscovered their riff-heavy melodics" to sit alongside "impressively righteous indignation".

[22] IGN reviewer Chad Grischow maintained that the music "comes across [as] toothless", lacking "any originality," and was "too repetitive and predictable".

[42] In a review for the Iowa State Daily, Tyler Barrett held a similar viewpoint, commenting that the band sounding as if they were "clearly caught in a web of aspirations, all at once attempting to evolve musically while sticking to its roots".

Apar noted Conley's vocals as walking "that fine line between endearing and annoying" and likened them to Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace crossed with Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols.

[41] In a review for Alternative Press, Scott Heisel reckoned Conley "seem[ed] to take pride in wearing his heart not just on his lyrical sleeve, but on any organ you’d care to eviscerate".

[16] John J. Moser of The Morning Call considered the lyrics were "as dark and violent" as possible, and suggested they would "repuls[e] listeners instead of having them relate.