Murder by Death was formed in 2000 in Bloomington, Indiana, by guitarist Adam Turla, cellist Sarah Balliet, percussionist Alexander Schrodt, keyboardist Vincent Edwards, and bassist Matt Armstrong.
One of the group's first shows was at the Channing-Murray Foundation's cafe The Red Herring in Urbana, Illinois, with former American Football drummer Steve Lamos' solo project DMS.
Both the tour and the recording engineer were arranged by the TEAM AV label, and the resulting Like The Exorcist, But More Breakdancing was released on Eyeball in August 2002.
In July 2003 the band released a split album with Volta Do Mar entitled Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmer in honor of the grandfather of the TEAM AV label owner who appears on the cover.
Along with the song "Canyon Inn, Room 16" from the Little Joe Gould EP, Murder By Death also contributed "Knife Goes In, Guts Come Out" and the instrumental track "We Watch a Lot of Movies" alongside an alternative version of "A Masters in Reverse Psychology".
Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Zimmer was recorded with producer D. James Goodwin during sessions that would ultimately bear the release of Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?
"[8] The title is an Italian good luck wish, literally translating as "in the mouth of the wolf" and therefore a likely nod to the language and subject matter of Dante's epic poem, which Turla was reading during the writing of the album.
The record also resembles the 1976 murder mystery from which the band takes its name - a pastiche of bad deeds and of good intentions, heroism and forgiveness.
The songs are presented in the same Spaghetti Western theme as previous works, but Turla's vocals are sung in a new baritone range, which has been likened by many[who?]
"[8] The vocals are again sung in the same low, baritone range as In Bocca Al Lupo causing a few critics to speculate that Red of Tooth and Claw breaks less new ground than previous efforts, although in general the album has been well received.
[6][8][9][13] The song "Comin' Home" from Red of Tooth and Claw was featured in a trailer for Quentin Tarantino's award-winning film Inglourious Basterds.
On January 19, 2010, Murder by Death announced the pending release of their fifth full-length album, Good Morning, Magpie, on April 6 of the same year.
Although it is not built around a unifying concept, like several of the band's previous albums, Good Morning, Magpie continues to draw on folklore for inspiration.
[15] The Canadian dates on the BDBM tour featured support from post-punk revival group Big John Bates.
The same year, Bungie expressed interest in using "Go to the Light" in its marketing campaign for the Destiny 2 expansion Forsaken, however the band no longer had the original master tracks for the song and needed to re-record it.