[1] They eventually signed to Island Records, who released The Artist in the Ambulance in 2003, which peaked at number 16 on the United States Billboard 200 chart.

[3] The band promoted the album's release with performances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in the United Kingdom and a supporting slot for Rancid and Alkaline Trio on their mainland European tour.

[10][11] Thrice had supported Dashboard Confessional on the Honda Civic Tour two months prior; it was during this time, they started discussing what to do for their next album.

[14] Drummer Riley Breckenridge said Brian McTernan, who had produced The Artist in the Ambulance, told the band to start writing as soon as they had finished recording that album.

[25] Riley Breckenridge said it was an uncomfortable situation; the band were trying to tell him what they wanted to experiment with in a studio, and Benson's response was to tell them about his success with rock ballads.

The band wanted a new perspective on the song writing process from Osborne, whose past credits include many British rock and electronic hits.

The recordings were mixed by Sean Beavan at The Pass Studios in Los Angeles, California with assistant engineer Zephyrus Sowers in August 2005.

Eddie Breckenridge thought it was appropriate as the material they were writing leaned "a lot more towards dreamy and atmospheric", while Kensrue wished to have the lyrics in that vein.

[13] Almost half of the record features direct quotations from the Bible, which Breckenridge attributed to Kensrue reading the works of C. S. Lewis, who also used heavy amounts of religious imagery in his writing.

[13] The record is characterized as being a rather experimental deviation from Thrice's post-hardcore roots, with the implementation of elements such as piano melodies ("For Miles") and electronica ("Red Sky").

[51] For the track, Riley Breckenridge said he employed a method that Dave Grohl had done with his bands Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age where he would play the drum kit without hitting the cymbals.

[18] "The Earth Will Shake" starts off as an acoustic blues track,[50] complete with a Hammond organ played by Teranishi,[34] before shifting into loud guitars, with Kensrue's vocals breaking into screams.

[54] The track sees the group playing with different time signatures, reminiscent to a darker iteration of Oceansize[40] and tonality of "Big Riff" by Cave In.

[50] A portion of "Hold Fast Hope" makes reference to the Bible story of Jonah;[48] it includes a Moog synthesizer part played by Osbourne.

[59][60] Kensrue posted a detailed analysis of the name, explaining that as it had no concrete meaning, hoping people would attribute the word specifically to the album and its accompanying songs.

[36][61] The cover artwork for Vheissu was posted online on July 14, 2005; it was created by author Dave Eggers and artist Brian McMullen.

[22] Breckenridge said the band's idea came from looking at the cover of the eleventh issue of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a literary journal founded by Eggers.

[21] Kensrue thought the phrases were "appropriate since one of the themes developing in my lyrics for the record is the ways in which we define ourselves", explaining that "Wie heisst du?"

[59][64] Riley Breckenridge explained how they were fans of jazz albums, which would have liner notes describing the writing and recording of them, and wanted to emulate that for the special version.

[79] During filming, they came across The Invisible Children Movement charity, who was raising awareness of childing in Uganda, which they promptly began supporting and encouraging their fans to help donate to.

[83] In January and February 2006, the group toured Europe; they were intended to co-headline the mainland with Coheed and Cambria, who cancelled because of their frontman sustaining a hand injury.

[97][98] Blender writer Tom Beaujour said the band "push beyond volume and velocity into a world of sprawling, mid-tempo arrangements and esoteric influences".

[45] Patrick Slevin of The Aquarian Weekly said the album's "almost unthinkable transitions [between songs] are so well-calculated and dynamically fruitful without sounding hokey, that it seems the band has finally reconciled their tribulations with varied tones".

[99] Alternative Press editor Scott Heisel referred to it as Thrice's "most challenging effort yet, with them showing they can 'be aggressive without being empty-headed ('Image Of The Invisible'), deep without relying on cliches ('Hold Fast Hope') and heartfelt without being 'emo' ('Atlantic')".

[44] Punknews.org staff writer Jordan Rogowski offered a similar sentiment, calling it their "most ambitious" release, as the band "pushed themselves that extra mile down the path to create something special, something people will remember, and this record perfectly illustrates that".

[56] AbsolutePunk founder Jason Tate said it was "so big, so monstrous, and so gigantic – that it makes my words and my descriptions or feelings so dwarfed by comparison", sharing resemblance to Clarity (1999) by Jimmy Eat World and Deja Entendu (2003) by Brand New.

[40] Noisey referred to it as "the sound of a post-punk band, once preferred by SoCal mall rats, attempting to thwart expectations and break free by incorporating piano melodies, atmospherics, chain gang chants, Japanese folk, and high-concept Pynchon-inspired artwork from Dave Eggers.

"[100] AllMusic reviewer Johnny Loftus said the album's "real earnestness" was its music: "Insular and meticulously layered, it switches restlessly between gauzy piano figures and righteous, full-bore post-hardcore".

[43] Spencer D. of IGN said the album's artwork gave him the false impression that the listener is "about to embark on a mellow, quasi-psychedelic journey when in fact it's a little more of the same old Thrice".

[50] God Is in the TV writer Mike Mantin complimented the "talented musicianship on display here", "[b]ut even with a couple of good parts, it comes together to form a faceless whole, the loud bits sounding like every other band in most genres that ends in 'core'".