GENRE; Rock
LABEL; Suicide Squeeze
RATING; 3/5
Not Here Not Gone marks a pivotal moment for Blackwater Holylight, showcasing a band that has grown into its sound with remarkable confidence and depth. Released on January 30, 2026 via Suicide Squeeze Records, this fourth full‑length blends doom, shoegaze, psychedelia, and heavy rock into an immersive sonic journey that feels both heavy and strangely luminous.
From the opening notes of “How Will You Feel,” the album sets a tone of melancholic introspection. Dreamy, layered guitars drift through walls of distortion while vocalist Sunny Faris’s voice hovers with emotional clarity, perfectly embodying the album’s theme of emotional limbo — a place that is neither fully present nor entirely gone. Throughout the record, the band plays with contrast: dense, sludgy riffs sit alongside airy synths and delicate melodies, a duality the group themselves describe as being the predator in some moments and the prey in others.
Lead single “Heavy, Why?” exemplifies this tension. The track balances crushing instrumental heft with Faris’s fragile vocal delivery, exploring the weight of emotional dislocation in a way that’s both powerful and haunting. Meanwhile, instrumental interludes like “Giraffe” provide brief breaths of experimental texture, highlighting the band’s willingness to push their sound beyond traditional heavy rock confines.
Critically, Not Here Not Gone has been praised for its nuanced songwriting and layered production, with several reviewers noting that the band’s relocation from Portland to Los Angeles adds a new dimension of contrast — Pacific Northwest gloom meeting sun‑bleached clarity. While some listeners find parts of the album less immediate, the overall consensus frames this work as Blackwater Holylight’s most cohesive and emotionally resonant record yet — a compelling journey through loss, introspection, and the blurry lines between presence and absence.
