demon hunter first appeared on "this is solid state vol. 3" with their first song "through the black" released in february 2002. demon hunter's self-titled album was released in october 2002 on tooth and nail records subsidiary solid state records. ryan and don wrote all of the songs, performed the majority of the instruments (with ryan singing as he had in tfu) and hired jesse sprinkle, formerly of poor old lu, to record drum tracks.