The Killed By Death series was started by Swedish record collector Johan Kugelberg with the first volume's release in 1988, its name borrowed from a song by the British band Motörhead. Inspired by Tim Warren's Back from the Grave series, Kugelberg was encouraged by Warren to start his own series documenting early punk rock. Among the more obscure tracks by non-mainstream bands was the entire first EP by the Beastie Boys who had since switched from punk to hip-hop. When this first KBD record came out, the Beasties were topping the charts with their album Licensed to Ill while their hardcore punk catalog was out-of-print and selling for large sums on the collectors market, prompting Kugelberg to write in his KBD liner notes, "What do you do when a record becomes filthy expensive? Stick it on a comp."

By the end of 1989 Kugelberg's Redrum Records' had released the first four volumes of Killed By Death, after which a fifth and sixth Killed By Death emerged in 1993, issued by an Australian record collector. Over 30 subsequent volumes of Killed By Death were released during the 1990s, all assembled by various anonymous compilers and released independently of one another. This resulted in the records' diversion from any strict numbering system as no one could predict where and when a particular volume of Killed By Death would hit the streets.

Mad – I Hate Music
Hollywood Squares – Hillside Strangler
Slugs – Problem Child
Vox Pop – Cab Driver
Controllers – (The Original) Neutron Bomb
Dogs – Slash Your Face
Gasoline – Killer Man
Beastie Boys – Jimi
Beastie Boys – Holy Snappers
Beastie Boys – Riot Fight
Beastie Boys – Ode To...
Beastie Boys – Michelle's Farm
Beastie Boys – Egg Raid On Mojo
Kraut – Matinee
Child Molesters – (I'm The) Hillside Strangler
Cold Cock – I Wanna Be Rich
Authorities – Radiation Masturbation
Authorities – I Hate Cops
Nuns – Decadent Jew
Users – Sick Of You
Wipers – Better Off Dead
Vicious Visions – I Beat You
FU 2 – Star In The Streets