Blackwater Holylight – Silence/Motion

 

 

Blackwater Holylight – Silence/Motion
Riding Easy Records – 2021
Rock, Psych
Rated: ****

Bang! There they were, back in 2018, shooting to the Number 3 position of the April Doom Charts, we are of course referring to the all-female all-rocking, bewitching and psychedelic Blackwater Holylight! It was their debut release and it was damn good, or as we said back then: “Resounding riffs, enchanting vocals and a rhythmic approach that melt over in each other and galvanizes your moment in time. A wild, heavy, fuzzy, psychedelic record that will make you dream of witches and will make your dreams bewitched. Rootsy and folky at moments it also moves over to a more sludgy or noisy approach when needed. In fact, they manage to make their heaviness burn with something that sounds sacred and ancient. Dramatic and macabre! ” The Veils of Winter record followed in 2019 and did all that while slowly slithering through a bit more doom and tad more prog approach. And now they’re back for a third album and do what they did on their debut, but better! Better, calmer, serene and uniform. It’s called Silence/Motion, and gives you eight tracks or desolate psychedelic landscapes that will often freeze you with their distance and coldness. Filled with appetizing melodies that borrow as much from shoegaze and stoner as it does from blackened doom and metal. Especially on opener Delusional with Bryan Funck from Thou making the track a wonderful yet harsh duet. And even though those heavy influences are slowly exchanged for more folk and natural wave inspirations, the vistas created are never warm, never harmless and never safe. And those few instances of beauty, tenderness and protection feel like a rarefied glimpse through a butterfly’s wing…

(Written by JK)

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