Band info

Band: gāſt
Demo: ‘gāſt‘
Genre: DSBM, doom, post-black
Released: August 24th, 2025
Location: US

Review

Hailing from New York, today’s band is gāſt, or Gāst, pronounced with a regular short “s” sound instead of a long one from the main from, but both interchangeably valid, which could be roughly from different roots as ghost or guest, and even might be a reference to Jacques Derrida conception of guest as a leeching force taking over the host (a parasite, say, in stronger vocabulary).

This two-piece project is actually quite a welcome guest, even at risk of taking over, as one of those quite promising artists arising from the nurturing soil of genres and styles such as black metal. While it is harder than ever to offer new prisms to the plethora of ideas already cast, active or not, part of one or any scenes and circles, gāſt make their way through with a bleak combination out of the frame of (post) DSBM hitting rock bottom at times with funeral doom that immediately get a burst of passion and despair in the shape of faster paced riffs and epic turns properly arranged with bits of atmosphere here and there or walls of noise and distortion as prelude, bridge or end to songs.

Hard to predict, and regardless of the production typical of any demo being released in the wild as first steps, this self-titled work easily stands out and showcases endless possibilities and ideas drawing from personal impressions, philosophy (so far, we got nihilism as a highlight, but not limited to) and political commentary entangled in this brief but solid material.

We can easily drop this demo a 8 out of ten, if we did that sort of thing, and only recommend giving this a deep and thorough listen!

Other links and platforms:

BC: https://gastsongs.bandcamp.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/gast_bk/