Empty surrounds all of me. It’s a poignant line from the third album by Blackwater Holylight thatencapsulates the search for self when suddenly everything has changed. There’s a theme ofprocessing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion that eloquently — both lyrically andmusically — and simultaneously embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength and rebuildingof recovering from personal devastation.
“There was so much grief both in the world and interpersonally during the process of creatingSilence/Motion,” says vocalist/bassist Allison “Sunny” Faris. “The four of us gave one another morespace to be ourselves, to experiment with each other’s ideas and to be gentle with one another morethan we ever have before. So, we knew this tenderness would manifest in extremely honestarrangements, and I think that you can hear that throughout the record.”
Curiously, considering the dark times in which it was created, this is the band’s most melodic andcatchy music so far. Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts: It’s a fluidconvergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. And,Silence/Motion finds the band honing those contrasts, letting ideas and moods fully develop fromsong to song, rather than filling every song with a full range of their capabilities. It allows the band togo fully prog-rock here, and simply stay hushed and intimate there. There’s a new confidence to theband in how seamlessly they wield their stylistic amalgam.
“Writing this album was extraordinarily difficult emotionally, however it did come to fruition fairlyquickly,” Faris says. “In the past, the theme of vulnerability has always been a big player and itdefinitely showed up full force while writing this album.”
Blackwater Holylight recorded the album as a four piece: Faris on vocals and guitar (on “Silence/Motion”, “MDIII”, “Around You” and “Every Corner”) and bass for the remainder, Sarah McKenna onsynths, Mikayla Mayhew on guitar (and bass when Faris plays guitar) and drummer Eliese Dorsay.New second guitarist Erika Osterhout will perform the songs with them live. For Silence/Motion theband chose to work with a producer for the first time, bringing in A.L.N. (of Mizmor, Hell) to produce,along with recording engineer Dylan White — who also helmed their previous album Veils of Winter(2019) — at Odessa Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Guest vocals on album opener “Delusional”are by Bryan Funck (Thou.) Mike Paparo (Inter Arma) and A.LN. (Mizmor, Hell) lend guest vocalsto album closer “Every Corner.”
Silence/Motion opens softly with interwoven folky single note guitars over an ominous soundingdrone for the first minute, akin to moments from Pink Floyd’s Echoes. Suddenly an irresistibly headnodding, groovy droptuned riff kicks in with the drums and it’s a full on blackened rocker with soaringsynths and Funck’s witchy whispers over the top. “Who The Hell,” the track quoted above, takesproceedings into a Krautrock direction, centered around McKenna’s arpeggiated synth loop andDorsay’s tom-tom triplets, while 16-note guitar strums add tension as Faris wearily sings, “So tell mewho the hell would want to live this way — so afraid/ To feel this void, to dwell in it… I can’t describethis pain I wear/ It suffocates and you left it here.” It’s an incredibly powerful 6 minutes. The title trackdelivers the 1-2-3 punch of the album’s brilliant opening trilogy. It starts with lightly plucked acousticguitar, plaintive piano chords and Faris’ voice gliding so softly it sounds more like a Mellotron. Thesong builds slowly toward crescendo, led by a swinging tom pattern, that abruptly switches back to aheavier version of the opening melody.“Silence/Motion” is about digesting and healing from sexualassault. As Faris explains, “It is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank and and likeyour entire life is moving through you simultaneously.” Elsewhere, Black Metal guitars collide withdreamlike melodies. “Around You” brandishes a hopeful, hummable synth melody and shimmeringshoegaze guitars like throwing down a gauntlet. In the end, it becomes undeniably clear just howcompletely into their own Blackwater Holylight has come.
“The analogy is that with our first record (Blackwater Holylight, 2018) we were getting into to the carand buckling up,” Faris says. “The second (Veils of Winter, 2019) we were turning the car on, andwith this third we have kicked into drive toward our destination. Our destination is a bit mysteriousand has the ability to change from day to day, but we’re on our way.”
Silence/Motion is available on LP, CD and download now via RidingEasyRecords.