Location: Salisbury, North Carolina
Country: USA
Genre: Melodic death metal, metalcore
Single/Video: The Sixth Omen
Format: Digital, streaming
Label: Bleeding Art Collective, Blood Blast Distribution
Release date: January 12, 2026
To generate more interest in their forthcoming full-length "Obscure Sorrows," Blackwater Drowning completed a second promotional video for "The Sixth Omen," following the video for "Eye of the Storm" from two months earlier. Even before you start watching the videos, the titles have appropriately cryptic and menacing connotations.
Promotional videos usually highlight the vocalist's appearance with extreme close-ups, also calling attention to the guitarist's solos. Since aesthetic innovation is as important to Blackwater Drowning as commercial appeal, they choose other, less conventional means of expressing themselves. "Eye of the Storm" challenges typical video production in quite a few ways.
Frontwoman Morgan Riley sports tattoos, projecting the beauty in that rather than as a bombshell rocker. Instead of focusing on a single band member, the camera takes panoramic images of the band, panning back and forth, pulling in on one member and pulling out, panning and repeating the move with another member. This creates effects of vertigo and nightmare that better expresses the song's meaning, representing the song similarly to the way Metallica visualized their songs.
"The Sixth Omen" is based on the Mexican-American folktale La Llorona, also known as The Crying Woman and The Weeping Woman. So named because her spirit is believed to haunt bodies of water, grieving the souls of her children. According to the legend, dating back to the mid-sixteenth century, she drowned her children in a fit of jealousy after discovering her husband's infidelity. La Llorona is said to be a vengeful ghost that curses anyone hearing her weep. I've read this legend is roughly comparable to that of the Aztec goddess of motherhood, Cihuacoatl, the Aztec earth-mother goddess Coatlicue, and the Aztec solar goddess Tonantzin.
Riley characterized the band's interpretation of the La Llorona folktale as a poignantly tragic narrative full of "heartbreak, rage, regret, despair, and grim acceptance of what comes to pass." The visuals chosen by the band for the promotional video is an unusual manner of telling the narrative, even with the accompanying lyrics, cast information and credits.
Riding an elevator to an unknown floor at some surreal hospital as keyboards and synths play, you’re abruptly struck by an explosion of highly technical riffs and tight high pitched voices. The band is shown performing the song surrounded by patients dressed in gowns and facial coverings. The setting is like something out of the old Twilight Zone series, or maybe Doctor Who with Tom Baker.
The band's musicianship and time changes are accurate, melodic, and slightly atmospheric, with a heavy underlying bass rumble symbolizing the malicious attributes of La Llorona's spirit. That rumble is continuous beneath the melody and more meticulous guitar sections, almost as if it begins to assume a distinct personality. Listening to it long enough makes it sound rather creepy.
Riley has complete control over her vocals, which are high-pitched and stretched taut like a steel cable poised to shatter, and she occasionally ventures deeper into guttural territory without losing her tight quality. This tightness makes her diction understandable even without reading the lyrics. When reading the lyrics, it takes some time to understand what they mean, but if you know the history, this track makes you a little more familiar with the La Llorona legend. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Morgan Riley: Vocals
Jeremy Bennett: Guitar
Ron Dalton Jr.: Guitar
Aria Novi: Bass
Aamon Dalton: Drums
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