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HIGHGATE “Prophecies of Eternal Horror”
HIGHGATE “Prophecies of Eternal Horror”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Fans of swampy slow motion misery…and I know there’s more than a few of you out there…should be made aware of HIGHGATE and “Prophecies of Eternal Horror”. Though not perfect, this is dirty, crawling sludge in the vein of EYEHATEGOD, WEEDEATER and GRIEF. Yes, it’s that cheerful…
These Kentucky boys make no attempt to conceal their influences or their dour thoughts on the human condition. “Terraforming Hell” starts the fun with minimalist acoustics and then works its way into a miserable trudge of EYEHATEGOD style doom. The vocals of Greg Brown are like the last shrieks of a dying animal here. Frankly, this one got pretty monotonous by the end of its nine minute plus length. That makes the more up-tempo and aggressive “Death Comes” all the more appealing. This is still sludgy but it’s got headbangable riffs and a more manageable time frame.
“Deceiver” is kind of a mid-point between the first two cuts and it swings back and forth between doomy bulldozing and something a little quicker. The heavily distorted soundbites that appear are like fingernails on a chalkboard, though. “The Writhing Dawn” mixes electronic noise into the slowest, longest cut that approaches PRIMITIVE MAN levels, which is always a grueling experience. Final track “At Paranoia’s Poison Door” picks the pace up a bit but is still one mean and miserable tune, packed with feedback and more samples.
This thing is designed to bring you down and it accomplishes that goal. Sludge and doom masochists are encouraged to check out HIGHGATE…all others beware!
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