A move to a warmer climate didn’t push the gloom away for Blackwater Holylight. The former Portland, Oregon band may have decamped to Los Angeles in 2021 after releasing their third album Silence/Motion to escape the region’s dreary winters, but their new record Not Here Not Gone continues the band’s dark explorations. It is also the group’s strongest release to date.
Over 10 doomy tracks, Not Here Not Gone features rumbling bass and distorted guitars but Allison “Sunny” Faris’ sorrowful vocals center each song with melodic longing. Alternately heavy and ethereal, Not Here Not Gone is the sound of a band coming into its own and the perfect soundtrack to the seemingly endless sadness of winter.
Blackwater Holylight exists on the border of shoegaze and goth. Much of Not Here Not Gone sounds like the records 4AD championed during its early years. At the same time, Mikayla Mayhew’s distinctive guitar pulls in elements of metal and grunge. But Not Here Not Gone is much more than a game of “spot the influence” as Blackwater Holylight makes these disparate elements into something wholly their own.
Opening track “How Will You Feel” blends together floaty electronics with down and dirty guitar, while “Bodies” is a full-on dirge that threatens to swallow itself whole. Meanwhile, the storm rises and falls on “Fade,” a drifting ballad that explodes into abusive guitar before settling back into stillness. Then it explodes again.
Not Here Not Gone will appeal to both fans of slowcore bands like Codeine and doom-laden folk artists like Chelsea Wolfe. Faris’ plaintive vocals glide over and under the roar of her backing band, offering entry to those who might be afraid of heavy music. There is something fearful and paranoiac about these songs, but consider the times we live in.
Though most of the tracks stray over the five-minute mark, closer “Poppyfields” pushes to eight minutes. A mini-epic locked down by Eliese Dorsay’s martial drumming, Faris ends the record with apocalyptic flair as she sings, “We whisper the past for now / We fear we’ll forget / We fear that we’ll let it go / Soft winds they blow for you / In ash, in air, it’s gone.” It’s as big and ominous as anything Blackwater Holylight has done, earning every moment of its extended time.
Not Here Not Gone will break hearts. It’s not an easy listen, but it’s an essential one. But rather than evoke the warm embrace of the California sun, Blackwater Holylight and their music still belong to the Pacific Northwest. The beautiful gloom is impossible to shake.
