Downthesun was formed by bassist Lance "Kuk" Collier and keyboardist Nathan Church, who were in a local Kansas City rap metal band called Canvas.

[4] The band then added vocalist Aaron Peltz and guitarist Bruce Swink to the lineup, before eventually settling on the name downthesun.

[8] Prior to recording the album's guitar tracks, the band's original guitarist broke his hand after punching a wall while drunk.

Subsequently, Lance Collier contacted Ultraspank guitarist Neil Godfrey to record the album's guitar tracks.

While he was almost made a permanent member of the band, Godfrey left to join Lo-Pro (featuring Ultraspank bandmate Pete Murray) and Motograter.

[10] In January 2002, the label, and subsequently Maggot Corps., collapsed,[11][12] which forced the band to drop off a planned tour of Europe with Slipknot.

[13] After Downthesun failed to renegotiate a record deal with Warner Music Group, they shopped the album around to a variety of labels.

[16] Their debut album was finally released on October 1, 2002,[2] and reached number 37 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart; it went on to sell 50,000 copies worldwide.

[17][18] Downthesun promoted the record by participating in tours with Soulfly and Slipknot as well as a New Years' Day show on December 31, 2002, with Murderdolls and Stone Sour.

[23][24] Thereafter, a new lineup was formed, featuring Matthew Burns on vocals, Cameron Fitzmaurice on drums, and Jason Martz and Nick Trotter on guitars.

This is best represented by the group's two lead vocalists, with Anthony "Satone" Stevens being "evil" and Aaron Peltz being "good", and often duelling with each other during songs.