US / THEM: HOLY WATER (ex-Heat Dust) shares new track from forthcoming album of heavy post-punk doom

Thursday, January 26, 2023

HOLY WATER (ex-Heat Dust) shares new track from forthcoming album of heavy post-punk doom

"Downtrodden post-metal." -- Metal Injection

"Blends doom riffs, art-funk rhythms, ethereal harmonies, and a gothic monotone to conjure the spirits of Ian Curtis, Coliseum, and Jeffrey Lee Pierce, all bent to Den Hartigh's own enigmatic purpose." -- Austin Chronicle

Austin band Holy Water share a new single today from their forthcoming self-titled debut album via New Noise Magazine. Hear and share "Sit Down, Restless" HERE and via Bandcamp HERE and Spotify HERE.

Metal Injection recently shared "Waterest Him With Tears" HERE.

Heavy music is experiencing a renaissance of innovation and creativity, while most of contemporary music genres have stagnated in recent years.

Case in point: Holy Water, a powerful new step merging heavy doom guitars, stoic experimentalists like Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and Khanate mixed with early 80s proto-industrial sounds like Psychic TV and The Leather Nun, metalgaze melodies and hints of Wovenhand’s gothic folk. Yes, that’s a wide range of styles, but it shows just how deftly Holy Water, the nom-de-tune of vocalist/guitarist Jasper den Hartigh cuts its own sonic space.

Jasper den Hartigh was previously a member of critically praised New Orleans post-punk band Heat Dust, which released a handful of recordings on The Flenser label and toured with Thou and The Body.

Holy Water’s 11-song eponymous album was self-recorded in 2021, at home and at den Hartigh’s Austin rehearsal space. Help on drums came from Andrew Stevens, guitar from Neckbolt’s Ben Krause, and vocals from den Hartigh’s wife, Sarah Contey.

“The album came after an extensive creativity exercise I did called Compost-Turn,” den Hartigh explains. “In which I put out 7 releases from friends and myself as physical bookmarks. When it came time to work on a self-titled solo project, this helped the songs appear rapidly. This album was my attempt at making a pop-record, while trusting my gut, using lessons learned over the course of my entire musical life. From being in punk bands, to playing slowcore, to ambient noise, and heavy metal. The songs all have references to Dutch fairy tales but also contain more personal writing.”

Holy Water will be available on cassette and digital on February 3rd, 2023, LP to follow in summer. Cassette preorders via Primal Architecture, digital via Bandcamp and LP via Time Release.