Black Tide was formed in Miami, Florida in 2004 by vocalist and guitarist Gabriel Garcia and second guitarist Alex Nuñez. At the time, Garcia was 10 years old and Nuñez was 13 years old. Garcia and Nuñez recruited bassist Zachary Sandler and drummer Steven Spence, friends of theirs who were both 14 and 15 years of age at the time, respectively. This completed the band's lineup. Originally known as Radio, the band's name was changed to Black Tide soon after its inception, gaining the attention of record labels due to the members' young age and talent. By mid 2007, Black Tide was signed on to Interscope.

Black Tide recorded a single, "Shockwave", which gained rotation on MTV2's Headbangers Ball. The band started touring and gained a position on the second stage of Ozzfest. Black Tide entered the studio in Chicago, Illinois with producer Johnny K. The band recorded 12 new tracks which included a cover of Metallica's first written song, "Hit the Lights", which originally appeared on Kill 'Em All. The album was critically praised, with Dan Epstein of Revolver Magazine saying "Listening to the debut album from Miami's Black Tide is a little like stumbling across a cool late-80s metal record you'd completely forgotten about. A very promising debut" and Scott Alisoglu of Blabbermouth.net stating the album contains "Big, sometimes pop-based, melodies meets crunchy, guitar-driven metal that falls somewhere between thrash/traditional metal and the dirtier end of '80s glam/hair metal."