Scottish trio Blackwater draw on their metalcore roots to craft a captivating fusion of crushing riffs, cinematic atmospheres and engaging vocals. Built around their love of video games, the band aims to blur the line between fantasy and reality in a sound they describe as “cinematic, crushing and evoking.”
The trio of Craig Paterson, Scotty Lodge and Connor Milne have been friends for over 15 years and played music together in various projects. They recently stepped back from making music in another project. But after just two weeks, they cooked up a new concept to create a band that combined their two biggest passions – music and video games.
As Scotty tells us: “Blackwater is a love letter to early 2000s metalcore with brutal, harsh vocals with super catchy cleans to match and plenty of heavy breakdowns to guarantee a ‘bangover’ the next day!”
Our first taste of this is Blackwater’s debut single Nowhere, which features Nick Eyra on vocals and was inspired by the love of classic horror video game Silent Hill. It opens up with an ominous siren call before big drums usher in crushing opening guitars, which continue under vicious screamed vocals. That feeds into a big chorus led by clean vocals, giving way to intense screams, big chunky guitars and edgy synths. It flows into another big chorus that drops into heavy guitars and intense screams, which give way to engaging vocals. And the track concludes with a huge scream over thick stabbing guitars and doomy cymbals setting up a slightly unnerving stabbing synth sound.
On the track, Scotty told us: “The response has been really positive so far with a lot of great feedback from peers, fans, and critics alike. This single is based on the hit gaming series Silent Hill, so a lot of people listening may not be fans of the genre but love the games and end up loving the general vibe, which is an awesome feeling. For those who haven’t listened yet; Nowhere is a descent into a different digital nightmare of conflict, survival, and redemption!”
The Blackwater sound has been inspired by a wide range of bands, including a shared love of Ice Nine Kills, Polaris, Of Mice & Men, Parkway Drive and Lorna Shore.
And on what inspires them to write music, Scotty explained: “We take our inspiration from the world of videogames, a shared passion among the members of the band. Tapping into the incredible world building a lore of our favourite games and gaming experience and turning them into an audible adventure. There’s only a couple other bands in the world that do this and they’re in adjacent genres but we’re all classed as Gamercore.
Nowhere is only the start for Blackwater, who are currently working on a debut EP, for which they have three of the four tracks planned out. The EP will be based on survival horror games, including titles that, in their words, “everyone should know.” They’re on track to release another single before the end of the year, with the EP set for release early next year, and have plans to take this new project to the stage.
And Scotty added: “Just a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. We’re super excited about what’s to come and can’t wait to share more with you all. In the meantime, share with all your friends and gamers!”
You can follow Blackwater on Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify and YouTube.
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