Started in North Hollywood, Blackwater Prophecy was joined by San Diegan Syren Franco as their vocalist and lyricist. An album called The Meridian Hour was released in 2013, supported with gigs in San Diego and at L.A. clubs like the Whiskey A GoGo. "Playing at the Whiskey landed our band name a cameo in the Al Pacino movie Danny Collins," says Franco. "It's nothing major, but we got a kick out of it when a friend of the band posted it on Facebook."

In 2016, the Jamul-based lineup featuring Syren with Chava Canal on guitar and Bryce Castle on bass began work on a symphonic rock album. "The recordings feature us three, with Chava playing the guitar parts, and Bryce on bass and overseeing the drums, which are currently being programmed to how we play the songs live," Franco told the Reader. "It's not a traditional way to go about recording, but so far we're able to make the music the way we have the vision for it. We plan to add some orchestral parts to some of the songs, and I'm going to add some piano here and there, much like we had in the first album."

"However, we have a more raw sound live."

Band members are geographically diverse. "I bought a house in Jamul here in San Diego county in 2014," says Franco. "Bryce lived down here for a year after that as well, but he and Chava are currently in L.A. County bordering Orange County. We make it work...we have help from friends and other musicians to fill in the very big sound our music requires live. We've been around for a very long time and have had geographical obstacles the whole time in one way or another, but we have stuck together through it all."

Though an album was planned for 2016, Syren Franco says he found it difficult collaborating remotely with players based in Seattle, Ventura, and Anaheim, so he instead joined Crash Recovery and began to focus on that group until Blackwater Prophecy could be rebuilt.