Glistening was formed in early 2016 by the Canadian multi-instrumentalist Extinctionist along with Evelyn Grace Madeline who bad been a lifelong aquaintance to Zack. In early releases Evelyn helped greatly to compose songs, with many of the riffs and ideas being done with her help, although as she had moved further away her contributations faded mostly just to add bass or vocals, she eventually left the band in 2020.

The project was started shortly after Zack had started getting into philosophy and ontology, most notably antinatalism, negative utilitarianism, ethical altruism, determinism, and pessimism. During this time he had realized Black Metal was missing something, which was the beliefs of antinatalism and it's ultimate anti-life statements of not procreating. The antinatalist beliefs are one of the most prevelant aspects of the band with the mental approach to create a philosophical archive, also highly notable to mention the book 'Better Never to Have Been' by David Benatar which has been credited to influencing the writing greatly.