Spirit Adrift - Enlightened in Eternity (2020)^{Release ID: 24004}

As most of you who have followed me for a while know, I am a huge mark for nostalgic metal bands calling back to the most grassroots elements of this genre’s history. But this also comes with the understanding that these artists have to make their sound unique enough to make it stand out from those other bands they take so much inspiration from. With Spirit Adrift, they added enough personal touches to their 2019 album, Divided by Darkness, to make it worthwhile and among the best records of that year.

Of course, now that this band is through the door, what can they do to stick around? Well, on Enlightened in Eternity, the band have made their way into the 1980s and have begun incorporating even more power/speed metal tendencies than ever before. Overall this album does feel a little more uptempo than their last record with such grooves as “Ride into the Light”, “Stronger Than Your Pain” and especially on “Harmony of the Spheres”. The lead guitar work is more frantic and the solos are more technical.

All of this is fine on its own, but without the songwriting prowess that was on display previously, these new ideas do not resonate as well. When the album does get a little slower and comes back to the band's very comfortable doom metal sound (see “Cosmic Conquest” or “Battle High”), these tunes are less enjoyable than “Angel & Abyss” or “Tortured by Time” on the last album. The melodies are less developed and tuneful, as well as the main grooves being less engaging.

That being said, this is still a very solid nostalgic heavy metal project. For a band that was doing a lot of Black Sabbath worship on their last album, it is really cool to hear them try their hand at Iron Maiden and even some early Anthrax style thrash metal. That being said, if this group does not return back to their songwriting presence of Divided by Darkness, then I wouldn’t be surprised if many fans of this group just go back and listen to the original articles instead.