The group released a two-track EP entitled Omnislash in 2009 before they proceeded to sign with Century Media Records in 2011, spawning their debut full-length album Måsstaden that same year.

The band's name was inspired by the name of an adventure module for the Swedish tabletop role-playing game Drakar och Demoner.

[3] Vildhjarta was founded initially as an idea by Daniel Bergström, Jimmie Åkerström, and Johan Nyberg in 2005 in Hudiksvall, Sweden.

After acquiring additional members and years of trading e-mails with metal label giant Century Media, the band signed a worldwide record contract in the Spring of 2011.

[4] Their debut album, Måsstaden, is a concept-album that "tells the tale of a hidden and isolated town, narrated in a classic fable manner".

[18][19] Guitarist Calle Thomér has cited the bands Meshuggah, Ion Dissonance, Katatonia, and The Mars Volta as some of the group's most prominent influences.

[20] With their distinct take on djent, Vildhjarta inadvertently coined the accompanying word thall, which the group have used to describe their own music and which has become a meme among the band and its fans.

The etymology of thall originates from the slurred pronunciation of the World of Warcraft character Thrall when spoken with a Swedish accent.