MAYHEM Deathcrush EP Vinyl Picture Disc (1987)

Before there was a scene, before there were the church fires, before any of it, there was Deathcrush. Released in 1987 on Posercorpse Music, this eight-minute-a-side EP is the document that told a generation of Norwegian kids exactly how far they were permitted to go.

Mayhem's debut release is not a comfortable listen and was never meant to be. Euronymous, Dead, Necrobutcher, Hellhammer, and the briefly present Maniac delivered something that made Venom sound polished and Bathory sound restrained. The Mantas-penned tracks hit like a rehearsal tape recorded inside a coffin, and Conrad Schnitzler's 'Silvester Anfang' intro remains one of the more unsettling ambient openings in extreme metal history. This picture disc repress is a proper artefact for anyone serious about black metal history, the kind of thing you frame or you play, ideally both. The cultural weight of this record on everything from Darkthrone to contemporary atmospheric black metal simply cannot be overstated.

Mini album EP on picture disc vinyl. Recorded 1986, released 1987. Country of origin: Norway. Genre: Black Metal.

Fans of: Immortal, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, Watain, 1349, Marduk