Not Here Not Gone

Not Here Not Gone begins like a door opening onto weather rather than a room. “How Will You Feel” moves slowly, its guitars spreading outward in soft distortion while the rhythm section gives the song just enough weight to prevent it from floating away. Blackwater Holylight’s strength lies in this balance between gravity and vapor: doom textures without constant bluntness, psychedelic repetition without complete surrender to formlessness.

Its best songs feel suspended between collapse and levitation.

“Involuntary Haze” and “Bodies” deepen that atmosphere. The vocals remain calm and slightly distant, which allows the guitars to carry much of the emotional argument. Riffs arrive less as declarations than as shifting shadows, sometimes thickening into a wall and sometimes receding into a skeletal pulse. This restraint is effective because the album rarely begs for attention. It trusts tone, repetition and gradual movement.

The same patience can also become inertia. “Heavy, Why?” and “Giraffe” contain strong textures, but their transitions are so smooth that the songs risk blending into one long dusk. The record is most compelling when a sharper rhythmic choice or a more defined melodic phrase cuts through the fog. “Spades” does this particularly well, introducing tension without abandoning the album’s dreamlike character.

“Void To Be” and “Fade” form the emotional center. Here the contrast between soft vocals and heavier guitar movement feels deliberate rather than decorative. The production leaves enough room around each instrument for the low end to breathe, and the resulting heaviness feels physical without becoming oppressive.

The final pair, “Mourning After” and “Poppyfields,” return to a more diffuse approach. They are beautiful in places, but their impact depends heavily on the listener’s willingness to inhabit the record’s slow internal clock. Not Here Not Gone is therefore more persuasive as an atmosphere than as a collection of sharply separated songs. Its strongest moments feel suspended between collapse and levitation. Its weaker ones simply drift. Even so, the album’s sense of space, texture and emotional ambiguity gives it a distinct identity.