Parabellum were formed in Medellín, Antioquia, in early 1983 by drummer Cipriano Álvarez and guitarist Carlos Mario Pérez. It took the band until 1987 to release their debut single, the two track Sacrilegio, limited to 500 copies. This was followed up with a second EP, Mutación por radiación, in 1988, limited to 600 copies. Sacrilegio was reissued in 1992, again limited to 500 copies, and a bootlegged version surfaced with an added third track ("Guerra, Monopolio, Sexo"). Adam Ganderson of Terrorizer describes their music as "somewhere between hardcore and bizarrely backwards speed metal riffing ... one of those inimitable sounds that can only be generated by accident. Seriously, this is some of the weirdest, most intense music ever to blast from the gutters." The band also makes a brief appearance in Víctor Gaviria's film Rodrigo D: No Future.
