[1][2][3] Though bassist Rob Yahn appears on the album, Mike Gonzalez received credit in the liner notes.

The song "Darkness Descends" is about the comic book characters known as the Dark Judges from the Judge Dredd comic book series, and even contains their famous statement, "this city is guilty, the crime is life, the sentence is death."

"Perish in Flames" describes a pilot's thoughts as he destroys a ground target with terrible weapons.

"[8] Loudwire placed Darkness Descends at number 6 on its "Top Ten Thrash Albums NOT Released by the Big 4" list.

Gene Hoglan retrospectively said of his performance on the album, "I was an 18-year-old kid with a whole lot of energy who thought he knew what he was doing, but totally didn’t.