Just unearthed some of the last copies of this long out-of-print split Cd from 2008; if you want one, move quick 'cuz these are the last of 'em. This is an alternate version of the original Choking Hazard split between blackened psychedelic specters Yoga and avant-doom ghouls Ghast; the original version came in jewel case packaging, but after that went out of print, the label created an even more limited package design that featured new exclusive artwork from Industrie Chim�re Noire and a custom gatefold sleeve, which was then made available sometime in 2010 in a run of just one hundred copies.

I'm sure that most of you guys know Yoga; the band has been turning heads with their mysterious blackened psychedelia found on the two Lps they've put out on Holy Mountain over the past two years, and it's all fucking fantastic, an utterly unique mix of low-fi black metal aesthetics, ancient Goblin-esque horror prog sounds, and purposefully murky sound collage techniques. Before those albums on Holy Mountain came out, though, the band appeared on a killer split album with another weird Canadian black/doom band called Ghast.

Ghast's "side" is on first, with two long tracks of crumbling blackened dirge that makes for a good fit for the hallucinatory sounds that follow. Both of their tracks are agonizingly slow, the band crawling through a low-fi haze of simple, sinister doom metal surrounded by distant droning feedback, clouds of tape hiss and some sickening ghastly vocals. The riffs are stripped down and spare, droning creeping dread laid out over the drummer's equally spare beats, a simple slow-mo trudge that goes on for long stretches of time before breaking down into even more sparse, minimal pounding. That droning feedback that writhes throughout Ghast's death-rattle sludge essentially becomes the lead instrument here, ghostly amp murmurs and keening electrical wailing that drifts continuously through the music even as the other instruments fade into the background, as if one of the bands guitarists decided to completely nod out as soon as the rest of the band started to play. Those vocals sound totally fucked, as well. The singer has this amazingly wretched, distorted snarl that most black metal bands would kill for, his murderous gnashing of teeth and frantic howling sounding like the work of a real madman. Their other track is particularly brain-melting, a low-fi live recording called "Malleus Maleficarum" that sounds even more degraded and rotted than the first, the band's sound heavily muffled and drenched in strange murky effects that give you the impression you're hearing them perform somewhere deep underground, their murky psychedelic crush rumbling up through soil and concrete and emerging as an indistinct lumbering heaviness.

And then there's Yoga. Eight songs on their end of the split, each a terrifying yet intoxicating miasma of burned out, washed out blackness, a shambling mass of hysteric vocals and bizarre noises, muffled rhythms and murky droning riffs, everything melting together into a supremely low-fi aural hallucination. Bits of clarity appear every now and then, a glimpse of a blackened riff, a snatch of epic kosmische sound, but mostly Yoga wander in the abyss, issuing strange and delirious songcraft that feels like you're listening to some low-fi bedroom black metal band performing music from Goblin's soundtrack to Suspiria. Eerie 70's keyboard sounds emerge from the gloom and seem to melt over the slow steady percussive pulse of the drummer, wreathed in black fog and swirling amplifier noise. Ghostly drones drift over strange murmurings and distant clanking. Strains of warped black metal-esque sound appear, backed by hypnotic chiming melodies and gusts of spectral breath. Delicate wind chimes dance against the sound of nocturnal wildlife and mysterious machinelike rumblings in the distance. Bizarre noisy loops materialize alongside jazzy bass guitar, like ectoplasm out of nothingness. The band even lurches into a strange sort of blackened, Goblin-tinged doom metal on "Mothman", though it sounds like doom as if heard from a great distance, the evil lumbering riffage and synths obscured by weird warbling noise and murky ambience. Their side closes with "Emin and Anakim", darkly beautiful, returning to that heavy, murky majesty, swirling blown out synths and heavy drumming buried under miles of noise and feedback, a super moving melody at the heart of it. Gorgeous, intensely creepy stuff that's essential for anyone into their later recordings.