Music Review // Blackwater Holylight "Not Here Not Gone" (Suicide Squeeze Records)

 https://blackwaterholylight.bandcamp.com/album/not-here-not-gone

Back in 2018 Blackwater Holylight released their debut self-titled album and ever since then I've been hooked on their sound.  Now, some eight years later, they are back (with albums in between, mind you) with "Not Here Not Gone".  There are big, heavy melodies in here like Audio Jane, but also it seems to be closer to metal than rock.  At times I can hear artists such as The Cranberries, Poe and somewhat Metric.  This has an atmospheric metal way about it, in the sense that if you feel like metal is this compressed sound, Blackwater Holylight sort of expands it in the way that it would fill a room and not just a speaker.

My favorite part about music in the year 2026 is all of the history behind it, which can really make for some great mixes of sound.  Listening to artists along the -gaze genres such as Rocket and even the newest album from Softcult, you can really hear how a band like Blackwater Holylight could mix with them to go on tour and share a stage.  At the same time, when you think about metal in a heavy sense, you could feel like Blackwater Holylight would also be able to hold their own on a stage such as that as well.

Living in 2026 with music such as this is great, but it also will hopefully help people to see music as more than just a binary construct.  As an example, if you got an award for having the "best metal album", that means that you are either metal or you are not metal.  "Not Here Not Gone" can be metal depending upon how you listen to it, perhaps depending upon your mood as well, but at other times it can lean more towards the dark, brooding rock that even can touch upon post rock.  Truly an album not just spanning genres, but also creating them.