Shai Hulud started recording the album in August 1997 and finished the process in September. The album's title name comes from the lyrics of "Outside the Boundaries of a Friend",
My heart, once nourished with hope and compassion, now is black as death. Many movie samples were used. One of them is played at the end of "Solely Concentrating on the Negative Aspects of Life", in which
Bill Murray is heard saying "It's gonna be cold. It's gonna be gray. And it's gonna last you for the rest of your life" from the 1993 film
Groundhog Day.
Sigourney Weaver in
Alien (1979) is heard at the end of the record saying, "This is Lieutenant Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off." Early versions of "Beyond Man" ("Favor") and "For the World" ("Sauve Qui Peut" (Save Yourself, in literal translation from
French) are found in
A Comprehensive Retrospective: or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Release Bad and Useless Recordings compilation. off the 1995 demo. Damien Moyal, the former vocalist of the band, still has a "Sauve Qui Peut" tattoo on his arm. The techno/industrial version of "If Born From This Soil", entitled "If Born From This Soil: Treatments for the Infected Foetus", was arranged by Jonathan Wright and his project, Minor Procedure. In the thanks list, the hardcore band
Will Haven is thanked twice. The album was released in CD/LP and 12" clear brown (106 press). It is now sold through Crisis subsidiary,
Revelation Records. == Composition and music ==