Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness (2019)^{Release ID: 10350}

Classic heavy metal with just a touch of doom to add a bit of heft. Ass-kicking riffs and a vocalist that has a similarity to latter-day Ozzy Osbourne, there's a couple of solos, but nothing too showy. This mines direct from the motherlode of proper old-school metal - anyone who doesn't love this record doesn't love heavy metal at all!

So I thought I check out a new album from Bandcamp and found the band Spirit Adrift, a doom metal band from Phoenix, Arizona. Now, being primarily a metalhead, I have never really been the biggest fan of doom metal as a subgenre. And it is the same reason why I am not a huge fan of most extreme metal subgenres. Mainly, their lack of attention to melody and songwriting. With both, they would rather focus on tempos, whether that be the slow, drone like guitars of doom metal, or playing technically demanding music without any melodic groove in extreme metal. So I was not expecting much out of Divided by Darkness.

And thus it is my duty to remind every single one of you of a very important mantra: never judge a book by its cover. Yes, this is doom metal, but Spirit Adrift are making melodic doom metal; one that has influences from traditional heavy metal, thrash metal, and even power metal.

So to start, let’s break down those influences. Nate Garrett has a very powerful voice that has an uncanny resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne, only with a little extra grit. He doesn’t try and keep it cool during the chorus of “Divided by Darkness” just to keep the comparison. From thrash metal, you have songwriting that contains faster grooves and melodic counterpoint provided by the guitars; with “Angel & Abyss” upping the ante by having a second half that could have been borrowed from any Anthrax album. And from power metal, the strings that accent the outro of “Tortured by Time” and the synths that highlight the transitions and outro of “The Way of Return”.

But, this is a doom metal album first, and some of my favourite moments are when the songs modulate to these clean guitar sections. They have a very similar pickup to those found on the last Altars of Grief album, Iris, released last year. “Born into Fire” and “Living Light” both use these and they sound really pretty.

But what will make this album stand out are its transitions and the songwriting. I already mentioned the superb second half of “Angel & Abyss”, but most of the time the band actually goes from thrash to doom. “Divided by Darkness”, “Born into Fire”, “Tortured by Time”, and “Living Light” are all great examples of this.

And as for the songwriting, I don’t know what I can really say besides: “listen to the album!” It’s doom metal that allows for melodic importance throughout the project. “Hear Her” is the most accessible track on the album, making it incredibly easy to pick up, but “Tortured by Time” is an immediate standout. Throughout the album, the guitar holds the album together with contrapuntal melodies and technicality during the solos. On this track, the guitar is all melody; no ridiculous fancy guitar tapping solos, but it is just as effective in terms of creating the mood the band is going for.

Now I do not think that this album is perfect. One of my biggest critiques is that too many of these tracks resort back to a paint by numbers formula of: fast intro with verse/chorus combo, followed by a drop in tempo to more traditional doom style for the bridge and outro. With “Living Light” probably being my least favourite track on the album. The fast beginning feels more like an extended intro before having its tempo drop for the remaining three minutes, of what is essentially an instrumental. It’s why when the band flips the roles on “Angel & Abyss”, it’s really striking and easily my favourite track. I even like “Hear Her” because it doesn’t make that change.

But in summary, Spirits Adrift have released an excellent album that may feels very transitional. But after bringing in thrash, power and even progressive metal elements throughout the album, it leaves me with a lot of joy to see where Nate Garrett could possibly go next. This is one of the best metal albums I’ve heard in 2019 so far and if you’re looking for a new face in metal to check out, this is a great place to start.