Originally Slaughter was started as a joke when the band couldn't play their instruments, instead recording funny music tapes and mailing them out to as many people as possible, just to see the reaction. Much to their surprise, people started writing back saying they liked the songs and so the band later hooked up with record store owner Brain Tailor to properly record a demo cassette "Surrender Or Die" before beginning to play shows.

Chuck Schuldiner at one point played in Slaughter for a few months during 1985/1986. In 2004, the compilation "Fuck of Death" was released consisting of tracks recorded by Slaughter during a rehearsal with Chuck in January of 1986.