They recruited Jacek Perkowski for the bass player position after months of searching, and by February 1988 the trio started rehearsing together.

Wank was present as a guest during the mixing of Napalm Death's sophomore album, From Enslavement to Obliteration, at the Birdsong Studios in Worcester.

Pungent Stench signed the contract in April 1989 and their first release for Nuclear Blast, a split album with fellow Austrian death metallers Disharmonic Orchestra, came out in June.

[1] Described as raw and primitive, it shows the band favoring simple song structures and visceral, demented aggression over technical proficiency and over-complicated soloing.

[6] Around the time their first record came out, Pungent Stench were already an experienced live band, having played with Carcass, Entombed, Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Atrocity and Prong, among others.

In an interview to Michigan-based fanzine Rot, drummer Alex Wank declared that he was currently into hardcore punk (Sheer Terror, Agnostic Front), industrial music (Swans, Laibach, Coil, Foetus), black metal (Mayhem, Darkthrone, Beherit), alternative metal pioneers Faith No More and "rape rock" group The Mentors.