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20 Buck Spin Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 08.05.2019 | Released: 10.05.2019
The brainchild of composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Garrett (Gatecreeper), Spirit Adrift returns with their third album, Divided By Darkness. With the new album in mass market, the band will hit the road for a two month tour of North America in May and June of this year. Later, in the Fall, they will share the stage with the likes of Tool, Korn, and Rob Zombie at Sacramento's Aftershock Festival.
You will find differing descriptions of the Spirit Adrift sound drifting across the Internet, heavy to doom to epic metal. Perhaps all three. First, and mostly, I found the songs to be intensely guitar-centric. After all, Garrett is primarily a guitarist. His riffs are thick and dominating and often, as they are building, Garrett drops lingering and soaring leads. With the title cut, his guitar riffs and leads guide the song in tandem. At the start of Angel & Abyss Garrett's opening guitar solo both inspires and soars in an almost classical music feeling. The musical canvas gets rich and thicker with the rhythm section where the booming bass and drums only ramp up the intensity to epic proportions. But because they also have a deep, often foreboding, character, you may get the whole doom metal feeling. However, it's certainly not that morose, stride through tombstones, creepiness.
Even more curious is what you will find within these thick and epic arrangements, moments of lightness, even melancholy. One is the guitar breakdown into rock groove at three quarter point of Dividing Darkness. Nearly at the same point within Born Into Fire, total guitar mellowness breaks out. Within Living Light, at the midpoint, again things mellow and slow for the guitar solo, all the way to the light electric guitar outro. Alternatively, Hear Her pretty much thumps with riff heavy steadiness from start to finish. All said, with Divided By Darkness, Spirit Adrift offers some intense guitar-centered epic heavy metal with more than a few moments of interesting musical intrigue. Recommended.
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With Divided By Darkness, Spirit Adrift offers some intense guitar-centered epic heavy metal with more than a few moments of interesting musical intrigue. Recommended.
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