“An ice cream truck drove by as I got done with the song. I was like, ‘We’re keeping that!’” How a custom SG gifted from The Mars Volta and a voice memo fed into Blackwater Holylight’s doomy shoegaze masterpiece

Sunny Faris of Blackwater Holylight.

Blackwater Holylight traffic in a specific kind of atmosphere – not just “heavy” as a genre checkbox, but heavy in emotional depth and weight. The kind that hangs in the air then suddenly breaks open into something hauntingly beautiful and almost tender.

That push-and-pull is heard on new album Not Here Not Gone, their most patient and panoramic statement yet, contrasting the doom-inspired sounds of Deftones-meets-My-Bloody-Valentine with the cathartic experimentation of Radiohead.