Blackwater Holylight place their chips on red and hit big on Not Here Not Gone.
Release date: January 30th, 2026 | Suicide Squeeze Records | Website | Bandcamp | Instagram
I feel like 2026 marks many anniversaries that came unexpectedly soon, too many to note. One, however, is certainly the ten year anniversary of the formation of Blackwater Holylight, an outfit equally versed in shoegaze, doom, psych, and hard rock. They are not the first nor the last band to combine those styles, as anyone familiar with the modern doom metal landscape will tell you. However, after a decade of existence, Blackwater Holylight have stood apart for the consistent quality of their output. Their three previous albums (and last year’s EP) explored different angles of their doomgaze/stoner rock sound, and each provided its own immersive, churning dreamscape, with no signs of slowing down. Since their last album three years ago, they’ve relocated from the rich scene of Portland to the richer one of LA (sorry PNW), they’ve changed record labels, and they’re slated to headline international tours. With Not Here Not Gone, their fourth album out January 30th, they seem ready to collect on their accumulated notoriety, experience, and musicianship and take things to a bigger scale.
Blackwater Holylight’s grand intentions on Not Here Not Gone come clear the moment your eyes catch the cover photo, or rather the moment it catches you. At once gloomy and glistening, enchanting and frightening, alien and human, it’s a distinct image that burned into my memory when I first saw it. The photo comes from LA photographer Magdalena Wosinska, who has a tie-in to the band through bassist Mikayla Mayhew and their hardcore group Cigcorpse. It shows frontwoman Sunny Farris emerging from a glistening sea of blood-like fluid head first, a violent reimagining of birth. This makes one reflect on what this project represents for the band. Perhaps they view this album as the rebirth of an already-formed group, made bloody through the size of the offspring and the extent of the labor. Then again, looking at the album’s title, the cover photo could reflect feelings of in-betweenness with relevancy and obscurity, or the enduring influence of their original location of Portland. Regardless of interpretation, it highlights Not Here Not Gone as a symbolic and pivotal moment for Blackwater Holylight’s career.
To those unfamiliar with the band, the music on Not Here Not Gone might not have the same shock value as its cover. A lot of the time, its songs are more geared to atmosphere and vibes than headbanging force. The opening track “How Will You Feel”, for example, emulates Slowdive sooner than Windhand, with its predominance of shoegaze and psych rock sounds and relative lack of distinct riffs. Deeper into the album, this trend continues with such mystic groovers as “Heavy, Why?” and “Mourning After”. Rather than tighten up and bulldoze through to pounding euphoria, these songs and others create webs of enchanting harmony and sink deep into them, using doom metal heft as an optional texture. In each song, Farris’ voice rises above the bewitching foundation like a wind, and as soon as she arrives it is even harder to break free. This inescapable immersion is more carefully crafted than on previous albums, and sweetened with uplifting warmth much of the time. In an interview with Prog Rock Journal, Farris credits these changes to the amount of time and preparation that the band invested in Not Here Not Gone, as well as their move to a warmer, less ‘depressing’ climate (not my words but sorry again PNW).
As always, Blackwater Holylight leverage their instrumentation to flexibly pull off many different passages and moods. Drummer Eliese Dorsay uses simple grooves sensitively and effectively to control each song’s pace, and sometimes makes a piece feel metal all on her own (see especially the surprise blastbeats on “Poppyfields”). Farris and Mayhew switch back and forth on guitar and bass. Together they create deep layers of sound in most of the album, where each chord progression feels like a groundswell. On the few spicy riff-forward songs (“Bodies” and “Spades” mostly), they inject strong headbanging force. Meanwhile, Sarah McKenna on synths and Camille Getz on violin ensure that every moment is soaked in otherworldly atmosphere, and keep this album sounding special.
Seeing as it is something of a make or break moment for Blackwater Holylight, it’s a relief to see the band evolve and create such a strong result as Not Here Not Gone. The album is full of memorable, well-calibrated songs, each of which sounds different but remains captivating. My only distinct complaints are the premature endings of a few of them, and the incompleteness of “Giraffe”, an odd interlude based on a hip-hop beat from producer David Andrew Sitek, with some guitar layered over it. Hopefully it’s the beginning of more fleshed out experimentation in the future. Wherever Blackwater Holylight go from here. it seems they’ll have the resources and expertise to go even bigger and greater next time.
