Though a part of that era's productive punk rock scene, their music was distinctive for its apocalyptic film noir lyricism and often for its sophisticated arrangements, as heard, for example, on 1981's A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die.

Desjardins's poetry has been described as "wonderful bleeding collages of B-movie dementia, street crime, Mexican Catholicism and Dionysian punk spurt poetics".

[4] The Flesh Eaters were started in the fall of 1977 by punk poet Chris Desjardins,[5] a singer known for morbid lyrical themes,[6] as an experimental side-project featuring temporary performers from other major Los Angeles area bands, including John Curry, Dennis Walsh, and Scott Lasken of the Flyboys, Tito Larriva of the Plugz, Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, John Doe and drummer D. J. Bonebrake of X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman of the Blasters, and Steve Berlin of the Blasters and of Los Lobos.

The band also weighed in with three tracks on the Upsetter compilation Tooth and Nail from 1979, along with the Germs, U.X.A., the Controllers, Negative Trend, and Middle Class.

Their next, most acclaimed album A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, featured a veritable supergroup of LA scene musicians, with vocalist Chris Desjardins joined by Dave Alvin (the Blasters) on guitar, John Doe (X) playing bass, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) on saxophone, with D. J. Bonebrake (X) and Bill Bateman (the Blasters) sharing percussion duties.

In his review on AllMusic, Patrick Kennedy states, "A classic album of trashy-noir darkness, seamy Hollywood dreck, campy blues horror, and Stax-influenced, stripped-down guitar punk, [...] A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die truly delivers what it promises: simple, direct, roots-flavored early L.A.

"[8] Asked about his own connection with the band in December 1983, X's John Doe recalled that he had been a long-time friend of Desjardins who had been called into temporary service:

The group's fifth member, drummer Chris Wahl, was found through a bulletin board advertisement in an area record store called Vinyl Fetish.

Over the next three years, the Flesh Eaters released three more albums on SST Records: Dragstrip Riot (1991), Sex Diary of Mr. Vampire (1992), and Crucified Lovers in Woman Hell (EP - 1993).

The most recent Flesh Eaters album, Miss Muerte, was released in 2004 on Atavistic Records and produced by Chris D. This label has also reissued No Questions Asked and Hard Road to Follow.

On several of the tracks appearing on earlier records, he says "don't let [it] throw you off as the band really does breathe new life into the songs that were very much alive to begin with".