This was the band's first full-length release on an international record label and the first after changing the group's name from the Boys Next Door to the Birthday Party.

[1] According to Australian music historian, Ian McFarlane, "It was during this time that the band cemented its reputation as a peerless live act, with its omnipresent influence settling over the Melbourne scene".

[2] In Melbourne, in December 1980 and January 1981, they joined engineer and producer, Tony Cohen, in Armstrong's Audio Visual Studios (A.A.V.

[1] Music journalist Toby Creswell noted that the band "struggled with creating their own identity some of them also began indulging an appetite for alcohol and heroin".

[3] About.com's Anthony Carew felt Prayers on Fire was able to "capture the qualities of their infamous live-shows on record ... the evocatively-produced set dared dress key cuts in blaring brass; giving a sense of perverted-cabaret to their mordant racket, turning Cave from nihilist, self-destructive savant to theatrical, flamboyant showman".

[4] AllMusic's Greg Maurer found "a fascination with the dark, (self-)destructive side of religion is more than evident in his later work...