Only Through the Pain

By the time work on the album began, the band's relationship with their label, Warner Bros. Records, was already strained, in part due to their 2005 album, Someone in Control, not meeting the label's expectations.^[5] The label quietly dropped the band from their roster and began ignoring the band's emails. Irritated, the band emailed the label saying they were leaving, and began shopping demos around to new labels, ultimately signing to Eleven Seven, which, at the time, was distributed by Warner Bros. The band went up to Canada to work on the album with Garth "GGGarth" Richardson, who produced the band's self-titled record.^[5]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com	[6]
AllMusic	[7]
Audiversity	Excellent[8]
EveryJoe.com	4/5[9]
IGN	5.8/10[10]
TuneLab Music	9/10[11]
Ultimate Guitar	7/10[12]

The debut single, "Who's Going Home with You Tonight?", was released on June 10, and peaked at #12 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and #11 on the Active Rock chart by the end of the month.^[13] The album was released on August 5, debuting at number 18 on the US Billboard 200 and number four on the US Top Rock Albums chart,^[14] and selling 25,000 copies in its first week.^[15] "Contagious" was released as the second single in 2009, also making its way to the Mainstream Rock Airplay and Active Rock charts, peaking at #18 and #15 respectively.

To promote the album, the band set up a social network, "OnlyThroughThePain", where fans could stream the album, download customizable Trapt content, and interact with other fans as well as the band.^[1] That summer, the band embarked on the Crüe Fest tour, opening for Mötley Crüe alongside openers Buckcherry, Sixx:A.M., and Papa Roach.^[1]

The album received mixed to positive reviews from critics.