Deathcrush

 ( Mayhem Albums ) 

The opening track "Silvester Anfang" was provided to the band by German electronic music composer Conrad Schnitzler, after Euronymous found Schnitzler's home address and sat outside his house until he was eventually invited in.Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, Dayal Patterson, p. 135. Euronymous then asked Schnitzler to compose an intro for the album; rather than record a new composition Schnitzler gave Euronymous a random piece from his archives, which would later become known as "Silvester Anfang".

Drummer Kjetil Manheim later stated that the band's sound was "something that the did not know how to record (...) so he just set the settings and we recorded". 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".Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, Dayal Patterson, p. 136.

In 2008, Daniel Ekeroth wrote, "The two visionaries Aarseth 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".Ekeroth, Daniel: Swedish Death Metal. Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points Books 2008, pp. 245–246.

According to Dead, most, but not all of the lyrics were written by bassist Necrobutcher.

Maniac performed vocals on all of the tracks except "Pure Fucking Armageddon", which was sung by Messiah. The Venom cover "Witching Hour" was sung by Messiah and Maniac. Manheim played piano on "(Weird) Manheim".