The band signed a licensing deal with Epitaph Records on 11 September 2008, with the label releasing the album on 18 November 2008 in the United States.

[4] The album shows a major change musically from their previous releases, starting to shift from their original deathcore sound and mixing in metalcore influences.

The album has begun receiving even more favourable retrospective analysis, notably surrounding Bring Me the Horizon's later critical acclaim.

They cited that very few publications featured them and in drummer Matt Nicholls' opinion, the band had gathered strong hatred from 'proper metalheads'.

[5] When preparing the music for Suicide Season, vocalist Oliver Sykes and lead guitarist Lee Malia agreed that this record would be the "make-or-break" factor for the band and that it had to be different from Count Your Blessings.

[10] The album features guest appearances from vocalist JJ Peters of Deez Nuts, Sam Carter of Architects and Luis Dubuc of The Secret Handshake.

"[18] The dubstep style of the record has been acknowledged in tracks from Tek-one[19] and Skrillex while the hip-hop elements are found in Travis McCoy's remix of "Chelsea Smile".

The support acts included The Red Shore, Deez Nuts, The Secret Handshake, Dead Swans, The Legacy, Misery Signals, Johnny Truant, The Ghost Inside, and Confide.

[7][note 2] The first promotional video from Suicide Season was released on 12 August 2008 on the Visible Noise Myspace page, entitled "The Comedown".

Musicians and producers featured on the album include: Ben Weinman from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Skrillex, L'Amour La Morgue, KC Blitz, Utah Saints and Shawn "Clown" Crahan from Slipknot.

While some were not so pleased with the change in direction from the earlier deathcore sound of the band's previous album and the lyric writing continued to receive some criticism in certain areas, Suicide Season was generally seen as a notable improvement over their debut record, with praise aimed at the shift in sound to a more refined musical direction rooted in metalcore, the more mature songwriting and the instrumentation, along with its willingness to experiment with elements of other genres.

Tom Forget of AllMusic wrote that the album is filled with "Intricately constructed and refreshingly unpredictable songs", citing Bring Me the Horizon as one of Britain's first metalcore bands to "make any waves.

"[13] Phillip May praised the band's ditching of deathcore and new adoption of metalcore, writing on RockLouder that "One of Suicide Season's greatest assets is its sense of menace.

But here, by allowing layers and riffs time to breathe, efforts like the title track prove far more intimidating than any lightning-paced deathcore mush ever could.

"[16] Ryan Williams of Thrash Hits gave the album a rating of 4.5 out of 6, writing that although some of Sykes' lyrics are "cheap", "It's easy to focus on the obvious and the silly but there are some seriously strong developments to BMTH's newly-matured music.

There's no authenticity; it just seems like the songs were built from a collection of "brutal" ideas written on pieces of paper, put together in a hat, and splashed out on the floor."

A review on AbsolutePunk was also critical of the album, stating that while some songs were "heavy, but catchy" and "sounds like it would have a room full of people moshing until they drop", at some points it feels like the band is "half-arseing it", going on to say "Sometimes you wish they would throw in some thrash beats, and fast riffing.