Laura Jane Grace announced in July 2018 that the band she had performed previous solo tours with since 2016, The Devouring Mothers, had recently completed Grace’s second solo record together, to be released on Bloodshot Records in Autumn 2018. The band’s members since its inception have been Grace and Willard from Against Me!, as well as long-time producer and collaborator Marc Hudson.

Despite Bought to Rot being announced and released as the first record with The Devouring Mothers, it is in fact the second album the trio have recorded together. The album’s title refers to the difficulty of Grace having written the album’s songs, but feeling that they were not suitable for an Against Me! record, which was expected to be the album Grace would release in 2018.