Artist: Holy Water
Album Title: Forest Floor
Location: Austin, Texas
Genre: Alternative, Post-Punk, Experimental
Influences: Television, Darkthrone, Low, The Cure
Label: Independent Release
Release Date: June 20, 2025

“Heavy like wet earth. Sharp like dry bone.” Holy Water’s new album Forest Floor arrives June 20, 2025. A descent into decay, memory, and the quiet weight of time.

About Holy Water

Holy Water is an alternative post-punk project led by Jasper den Hartigh, a drafter and artist from The Netherlands, currently based in Austin, Texas. The project, featuring longtime collaborators Andrew Stevens and Sarah Contey, fuses elements of black metal, contemporary classical, and doom metal with early post-punk influences. The result is a raw yet immersive sound, balancing atmosphere and aggression. Inspired by bands like Killing Joke, Raspberry Bulbs, Joy Division, and Darkthrone, Holy Water crafts music that is both visceral and hypnotic.

About Forest Floor

Holy Water’s third album, Forest Floor, is a sonic journey through nature, connection, and memory. Across 17 songs in just 32 minutes, Forest Floor moves between sparse, reverberant moments and dense, angular passages. The raw, tactile recording captures an immediate, lo-fi sharpness—reminiscent of both raw black metal and early post-punk.

Across the album, impressionistic and fragmented lyrics support the music, often relying on stark images rather than direct narrative. Themes of decay and transformation are present on many songs here, including album opener, "Rotten Fur." There’s a balance of resignation and awe, as if observing nature’s brutal beauty from a distance. Melodic passages emerge from otherwise dissonant soundscapes, giving the album a balance between haunting beauty and raw aggression. 

Tracks like “Reek of Man” channel a doom-infused take on Pornography-era The Cure, while the album as a whole is defined by brooding basslines, ethereal vocal harmonies, and layered production, drawing listeners into a dark, cinematic experience.

Credits

Forest Floor features Andrew Stevens on drums and Sarah Contey on backup vocals, while Jasper performed lead vocals, guitars, and all else. The drums were recorded in Marfa, Texas by Andrew, while the rest was recorded and mixed at home by Jasper. The album was mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios.

Selected Press

“It seems that Holy Water is almost one of the internet’s best kept secrets…  It is a well presented, written and recorded album that manages to evoke comparisons with Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails whilst remaining an original release.” –Musipedia of Metal

“At once melodious, infectious post-punk; heavy droning doom; and dissonant, experimental punk.” —CvltNation

"This is beautifully disarming music, the kind that stirs the soul while confusing your brain. In other words, for seekers of catchy weirdness, this is the good stuff, man." —New Noise Magazine

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