If you looked at the cover of this 7" and thought 'black metal' you would only be partially correct. Both bands peform blackened doom, but they approach that goal from totally different directions. From Quebec comes Ghäst. Their song starts with droning low-end chords, slow crashes on the cymbals and rising electronics. Vocals are harsh and buried beneath the ambience. Near the end of the track, the feedback grows and envelopes all of the sounds with a thick sense of self-destruction. Highgate must have crawled out of the thickest swamps Kentucky has to offer. They start out playing agonized sludge with harsh black metal vocals. Halfway through the track, they speed things up a little bit, before they launch into a chaotic blackened assault. Then it's back to the original tempo as the band lurks back into the swamp that spawned them.
The packaging is beautiful to look it, as is the blood splattered vinyl. There is a total pressing of 500 copies, so don't miss out on this agonizing slab of blackened doom.
