Deathcrush

This is the first thing Mayhem put into the world. It was recorded in February and March 1987 at Creative Studios in Kolbotn, and released that August on the band's own Posercorpse Music as a 12-inch, FRANK 001, in an edition of 1,000 hand-numbered copies. A printing accident made the first pressing's sleeve come out pink rather than red. The record carries a dedication to Metalion of Slayer Magazine. What is on it is the thrash and hardcore of the day driven through at an unreasonable speed and an unreasonable roughness, with none of the settled procedure Norwegian black metal would later have. The straight-line charge of "Deathcrush", "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" and "Pure Fucking Armageddon", the way Venom's "Witching Hour" is taken up, and the two short electronic pieces bracketing the record say plainly what kind of release this is. Part of its standing comes from the scarcity itself: for years there was almost no way to hear it. The running order here is the 1987 original's as printed.