Envy The Dead began in early 2000 when guitarist Tom Flanagan parted ways with Enmortem due to creative differences. The first line up of Envy The Dead consisted of Jeff Jahnz- vocals, Dave Kallas – guitar, Tom Flanagan – guitar, Scott McClelland – Bass, Joe Dinkins – Drums. Envy recorded a five song demo with this lineup in 2001 at Studio One in Racine, Wisconsin. The result was a skull crushing demo that pleased fans of darkened death metal.

Shortly after this release Joe Dinkins left the band. However, Envy was not with out drummer long, as Brian Wimmer joined the very same day. Three new songs were written with this lineup. The songs were catchier and more vicious than previous material so naturally the band was eager to get them out to the public. The band booked time at Mercenary Digital studios. A couple of weeks before the band were set to enter the studio, Jeff left the band leaving Envy without a vocalist. The band decided to go ahead and record the music as planned and return once a replacement was found to finish vocals and mixing. The recording process did not go as well as the band hoped. The drums and bass were recorded well but the guitar tone was just a bunch of high-end noise. During this period the decision was made that Tom, Dave and Scott would share the vocal duties Numerous attempts were made to book more time or get the data disk but Mercenary Digital would not reply to Envy’s requests. Envy did have an extremely rough copy of the recording sessions and decided to try their best to fix the recording. Extra guitars were recorded at Flanagan’s house and layered over the original recording giving the guitars a much thicker sound. The vocals were then recorded at Video Playground. While this recording does not have the polish of the 2001 demo it does capture the band’s essence and shows the evolution from fledgling death metal act to an unrelenting mechanized assault.