A Chat with Deathkrush (14.01.26)
Surging forth with a bold brand of metal music, musician Deathkrush binds heavy lyricism with crushing music in his debut album, Plague Protocol. We speak with Deathkrush about his album, what music means to him, and much more.
OSR: Cliché, but what drew you to music? What influenced you to become a musician, and how did Deathkrush come about?
Deathkrush: I got my musical heritage from my father and grandfather, even though our artistic expressions are widely different. I play, write and produce within a variety of music genres. Death metal and core metal are the genres I recently became curious to explore and try out. This after seeing and being inspired by bands like Amon Amarth, In flames and Mezzrow. With this newfound music genre, I have found a way to channel my innermost anger and frustration. It has become my creative sandbag to hit hard when needed.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Deathkrush: Music is a central part of my life and has been since childhood. For me, it´s as essential as breathing, eating and sleeping. Music touches, comforts, gives you a pulse or relaxation. It is your faithful friend that is always there when others have turned their back on you.
Learning to play and sing is an invaluable craft that you carry with you your whole life. A dynamic craft that develops you as an individual on many different levels and that unites and changes other people and society in a larger perspective. This fact can make me worried about what the progress of AI will do in the long term to humanity´s declining creativity as a healing process.
OSR: You recently released your album Plague Protocol. What can you tell us about the composition and production of the album?
Deathkrush: The songs were written, recorded and produced by me in my home in Mönsterås, Kalmar, Sweden by the end of 2025. I wanted the guitar tone to be central to the record, so I tried a couple of combinations before landing on something that carried that sense of dread without becoming muddy. In the end, it wasn’t about finding the most extreme sound; it was about finding a tone that carried the emotional weight of the recordings.
I landed a long-lost friend from 20 years back in time, a real ”blast from the past”: Guitaramp POD Line 6 ver.2.0. The experimental part of it was finding the right balance in the amplifier. Producing the raw and brutal sound, but at the same time not letting it become too ”overgained”. When it finally felt like the guitar was almost breathing tension, I knew I had it.
I wanted Plague Protocol to be a death‑metal onslaught forged in the furnace of a dying world. I wanted all nine tracks to drag the listener into a catastrophic future where the most deadly plague, wars and global warming has spiraled beyond control, turning Earth into a blistering tomb. No salvation. No survivors. Only heat, ash, and the final scream of a planet pushed past its breaking point.
With this album, I tried to capture the terror and inevitability of an overheated world collapsing under human negligence. Like a warning carved in molten steel.
OSR: Most people wouldn’t change anything about their albums or singles. If you could change something on Plague Protocol, what would it be and why?
Deathkrush: Then I guess I´m just like most people, in that aspect 😉 I consider myself extremely careful with my creations and dislike leaving something that perhaps could be better. I think the concept of the album is well worked through with the raw and brutal setting I was looking for, without it seeming too “overproduced”. This means that I´m very satisfied and proud of the result of all the hours spent on creating my music.
OSR: What do you hope people take from the album, and what do you take from it?
Deathkrush: First of all, I hope the listeners of the album Plague Protocol to
think: “Ok, this is not mainstream. This is nothing like I´ve heard before”. Like myself I want the listeners to get their pulse racing and their adrenaline pumping. I surely would be glad if people feel the rage, the anger and frustration listen to it, but also some kind of consolation that their own little world might not be too bad after all.
I want them to, just like myself, feel like they just finished a slightly lazier form of a workout listen to it, without necessarily having conducted a mosh pit. And of course, I hope them to spread the plague and look forward to the next upcoming Deathkrush album.
OSR: If you could introduce a new listener to your music, which track off Plague Protocol would you recommend?
Deathkrush: Difficult question and downright impossible for me to answer. I personally see all nine tracks on the album as interwoven episodes in a common overall holistic and cinematic story. A story that leaves no particular episodes as better than any other, according to myself. Some music journalists believe that the songs ‘Extinction’ and ‘Last breath’ perhaps stand out most as potential and commercial “single tracks”.
OSR: If you could give emerging musicians some advice, what would you say?
Deathkrush: That they ask themselves the primary question: “Why do I play/create and for whom?” If the answer is not: “Primarily for my own sake, for my own well-being”, art will never be free and liberating in the long run and you will become someone else´s servant.
OSR: You mention that Plague Protocol is a “death metal manifesto that envisions humanity’s next reckoning.” If you could take one line from any track as the mantra or message for the album and its theme, what would that one line be?
Deathkrush: Good question. Maybe “Obsidian flames devour the past/ false kings scream but none shall last” from verse 2 of the track ‘Ashes of the crown’. This track explains the aftermath of power collapse, the remnants of authority reduced to smouldering ruins and dangerous truths. That symbolizes the entire album. A message without moralising, just letting the presented wreckage speak for itself.
OSR: What plans do you have for the future?
Deathkrush: Plague Protocol describes a scenario of the end of all things. But the end is never the final destination of the journey in a larger perspective. It only leaves room for a new beginning, which might be the title of the upcoming sequel: A new beginning.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Deathkrush: Deathkrush only brings you fiction. There is still hope for humanity and Mother Earth, and… turn it up, consume it loud!
Many thanks to Deathkrush for speaking with us. Find out more about Deathkrush on his Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
