[8][9] While awaiting its official release, the band offered the music for free download and streaming across a variety of websites, with an often-changing track listing and several different cover artworks.

Stay Black features the single "The New Cleavage", for which the band filmed a music video with director Dwid Hellion while visiting Belgium in November 2003.

[24][26][27] Not wanting to abandon music completely,[4] yet unwilling to take part in the dynamics of a new band,[11] Moyal began tinkering with the idea of working on more solo material.

I stopped being content with punk and hardcore years ago, and towards the end of As Friends Rust, I was making very deliberate attempts to contradict the music, vocally.

I think, to be honest, that I became so frustrated with the sorry state of hardcore (and the mundane, stagnant styles that were pervading the entire scene and the As Friends Rust songwriting) that I started to mock it.

"[15] "I had never played an instrument in my life, but my girlfriend at the time was a guitarist, so I started tooling around with her guitar and writing basically the minute I quit As Friends Rust.

[15] However, once the recording of the band's debut extended play, Love Thongs, was completed and turned out much better than he had anticipated, Moyal wanted to give the project a more appropriate name.

"[8]Being new to musical composition, Moyal approached songwriting without deliberate similarity to his past hardcore and metal bands,[3] instead citing influences like Glenn Danzig, Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, Pixies, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, Radio Birdman and Velvet Underground.

[32] Moyal's softer and cleaner vocal delivery utilized in Damien Done stemmed from a transition developed over the years, especially during his time in As Friends Rust.

[28] In comparison to his harsher and screamier, at times growling, vocals in Culture, Shai Hulud, Morning Again and Bird of Ill Omen, his singing delivery in As Friends Rust, and later Damien Done, was deliberately cleaner and more conversational, intended to create an intimate connection with listeners.

[8][31] Moyal would further utilize this theme during the writing of Damien Done's album Charm Offensive throughout 2016 and 2017, with many off-beat love songs told from the perspective of "the other party".

[5][30] Handling vocals and acoustic guitar, Moyal recorded five songs: "Dude Becomes Sea", "Here Comes the Plague", "I Want to Solve the Problems in Your Dress", "The New Cleavage" and "She's About to Lose It".

[3][5][38] On January 19, 2004, Damien Done launched its official website,[39] and on February 6, 2004, downloadable audio tracks of "Ass-Crack Is the New Cleavage" and "Dude Becomes Sea" were made available.

[7][15][17] The video featured Moyal casually drinking Duvel beer and smoking cigarettes in a sensuously-lit lounge, surrounded by Murielle Scherre's La Fille D'O models dressed in lingerie and bikinis.

[16][33][5] Verhaeghe was motivated by the fact that Moyal had once been straight edge in the 1990s, and fronted several bands (notably Culture) that were vocal about abstaining from drinking and smoking.

[40][17] The music video for "The New Cleavage" was hosted on several websites starting on February 6, 2004,[17] including Damien Done's,[40] Good Life Recordings',[42] La Fille D'O's,[43] and Dwid Hellion's.

[45] The extended play was eventually rescheduled for the fall of 2004,[29] and as such, Verhaeghe printed promotional flyers for the release and included the song "The New Cleavage" on his label's Various Artists compilation, Good Life Recordings Presents: Never Surrender - The Best New Underground Music 2004-2005.

[47] On August 17, 2004, Moyal announced that a new band line-up had been assembled in Miami, including former Shai Hulud, Cavity, 108, Against All Authority and Where Fear and Weapons Meet drummer (and then-member of Hazen Street and Until the End) Jason Lederman, and former Where Fear and Weapons Meet, Dashboard Confessional and Seville bass guitarist Daniel Bonebrake.

[15][17] Originally announced as You've Been Dicked Down by the Left Hand of God, but later re-titled Bits of Happy,[17] Moyal began demoing material for it alone at his home studio.

[7][28] These included "March Towards Blackness", "Gimme the Mouth", "Jesus Train", "The Saints That Ain't", "Lighten Up (Live in Sao Paulo, Brazil)" (which was not a live track but rather a studio recording, and was later re-recorded in 2016), "Saturday", "It's a Piano Thing", "Shame" and "Palomita Asustada" (also known as "When You Left Your Home", which was later re-recorded in 2016 for Charm Offensive), most of which were shared with fans on the band's Myspace page.

[7] In the process of revamping the release, several changes were made, including the swapping of the first two songs' positions ("Here Comes the Plague" and "Dude Becomes Sea"), the dropping of "Catsong", designing new artwork, and finally, the re-titling of Love Thongs to Stay Black.

[52] In his Ann Arbor home studio, he recorded and produced another series of songs planned for Stay Black, including "Five Seconds" (also known as "Live and Die"), "Everybody Loves You" (a cover of Cop Shoot Cop, which was later re-recorded in 2014) "Saw-Whet", "Take Care of Yourself", "Drone Ranger" and "Untitled (A Lot)",[52] most of which were shared with fans on the band's Myspace page.

[34] In December 2011, Moyal trimmed down Stay Black back into an extended play, removing all non-Wisner Productions recorded songs (including "Catsong").

[60] In late 2015, Marcel Erdmann, owner of German record label Demons Run Amok Entertainment, showed interest in properly releasing Stay Black.

[8][9] Like Good Life Recordings, Demons Run Amok Entertainment had released material by Moyal's other bands, including Culture and As Friends Rust in May 2015,[61][62] and Morning Again and On Bodies in September 2015.

[13][11] Stay Black was finally officially released after thirteen years, on a limited edition white 12-inch vinyl and digitally by Demons Run Amok Entertainment on July 8, 2016.

[8][65][66] Moyal had long-admired Brady's work and had earlier considered her photographs for Stay Black's artwork, during the end of the release's Good Life Recordings era.

[8][23] He quickly approached her again for the Demons Run Amok Entertainment version, because he felt that her pictures captured a contrast between beauty and darkness; what is seen and what is hidden, which reflected many of Damien Done's themes and lyrics.

[72] Damien Done was compared to such artists as Danzig,[1][71] Chuck Ragan,[67] Johnny Cash,[71] David Judson Clemmons,[67] Danko Jones,[68] Monster Magnet,[72] A Pale Horse Named Death,[1] Alice in Chains,[72] and Soundgarden.

[73] The music was commonly described by the press as "a mixture of emotion, honesty and punk-rooted",[67] heavy,[70][67] dark,[1][72] melancholic,[67][1] driving,[68][1] soulful,[68] multi-layered,[68] unsettling.