Welsh nu-metallers Lostprophets formed in the Cardiff satellite town of Pontypridd in 1997 following the breakup of Public Disturbance, who featured Ian Watkins on drums and guitarist Mike Lewis. Recruiting guitarist Lee Glaze and drummer Mike Chiplin, Watkins took over vocal duties. After playing around the local live scene, their first demo attracted the attention of metal magazine Kerrang!, which offered them a slot at a London show. There, they caught the eye of independent label Visible Noise, and were approached to record a single.

Lostprophets spent much of 1999 working on new material with new bassist Stuart Richardson. They put out their second demo in February 2000 and signed up to Visible Noise, who released their debut album The Fake Sound of Progress that July. Support slots with Linea 77, Taproot, Pitchshifter, Linkin Park, and the Deftones, as well as incendiary headline shows of their own, brought the band a rabid live following. They also added old friend Jamie Oliver to the lineup on turntables.

In the summer of 2001, Lostprophets signed to Columbia in the U.S. and their debut album was remixed by famed producer Michael Barbiero and re-released. Stateside tours followed, afterwhich the Prophets entered the studio with helmer Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age; Good Charlotte) to record a proper second album. The band began ratcheting up the exposure barometer again in autumn 2003, with gigs at Big Day Out in Australia, a headlining European and UK tour, and new single Last Train Home" blowing up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The chatter was in anticipation of "Start Something", which hit stores in February '04.