Deathcrush is the debut EP and overall first commercial release by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem.

After vocalist Dead joined the group, the band adopted darker lyrical topics and guitarist Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth) started rejecting most other metal bands as their lyrics turned towards "social awareness"[3] and "normal" topics[4] instead of death worship;[3] he "wanted things to be more serious and extreme".

He also noted that there was "no mix, before or after" and "no overdubs: bass, drums, guitar are live and then we recorded the vocals after".

[6] In 2008, Daniel Ekeroth wrote, "The two visionaries [Aarseth and Per 'Dead' Ohlin] pushed each other further into darkness, and sometime in 1990 they finally adopted the Satanic image that would become so crucial for the genre [...] It's well documented that Øystein initially was very into death metal and grindcore".

[3][8] Maniac performed vocals on all of the tracks except "Pure Fucking Armageddon", which was sung by Messiah.