Album Review: SPIRIT ADRIFT Enlightened In Eternity (10/16)

 

Released by Century Media Records on October 16th, 2020

Quick Background

Classic doom and heavy metal band Spirit Adrift was formed in Phoenix, Arizona. The project began in 2015 as the solo endeavor of Nate Garrett, and eventually grew into a full touring band. Currently the only other member is drummer Marcus Bryant. Eric Wagner and Chase Mason left Spirit Adrift to concentrate fully on Gatecreeper. Spirit Adrift released 3 studio albums: Chained to Oblivion (2016), Curse of Conception (2017) and Divided by Darkness (2019). Those were already very good albums, so I am curious to see how the changes will impact the new endeavor.

Enlightened In Eternity

Enlightened in Eternity includes Nathan Garrett on vocals, bass and guitars and Marcus Bryant on drums. The music is more energetic and positive than previous records and with a raw immediacy and urgency. The classic metal influences from Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden are all over the place. But the cool thing about Spirit Adrift is that it doesn't sound retro or "remake", to me it sounds fresh and modern sometimes also reminding me of Mastodon. The album structure is classic 80s metal and I love it for that. 45 min and 8 songs, mostly short songs but an epic doomy 10-min closer. It's really easy to have this album on repeat. It's fun, heavy, riffy and catchy. Garrett's vocals fit very well this music style, and it kind of reminds me of Paul Di'Anno.  

 

The album opens with "Ride Into The Light" and from the get go we are blessed this Judas Priest vibe and uplifting feel. It's a headbanger full of cool riffs. And that instrumental passage from 3:00 is just so cool, classic 80's stuff and very well mixed, it sounds great on a headphone. Another favorite of mine is track number two "Astral Levitation". Overall the groove of the song is really moving and I find the vocal performance top notch, specially because the melodies are so catchy. We also get this spacy guitar solo and some emphasis on the bass lines. It all leads to a high tempo last third of the song featuring also great guitar solos and twin guitars in the best Maiden style. It's just overall a fantastic tune. I like the drumwork throughout the album which brings a high energy feel. Take "Cosmic Conquest" for example, nice drumming right there. On the same song we get more Maiden/Priest-like twin guitars and solos. "Screaming From Beyond" was the song that made think on Mastodon the most, specially their recent catalog. Obviously this means it is another great tune. The album closes with the almost 11-min "Reunited In The Void" which is a very different tune from the rest of the album. It relates more to previous releases as it's a doom slow paced song. Even more emotional but also not that dark. It's a great way to bring the album to a close with some variability and reminds us of the other side, more Sabbath-like, of  Spirit Adrift.

The Picky Guy

My only small remark on the album is the second half sequence of 3 4-minute songs that doesn't quite live to the expectation created by the first 4 tracks and also don't bring anything really new to the mix. Don't get me wrong, I also like those songs, especially "Battle High" but a bit more variability and progressiveness here would've helped further my Enlightened In Eternity score.   

Wrap Up Opinion 

Wrapping it all up, Enlightened In Eternity is very good album, close to be great, hence why I am giving it 85/100. I got hooked from the first listen and it only grew on me since then. It's currently among my top albums of the year. I love the homage to traditional heavy metal combined with doom influences but all done through a modern lens. Additionally the music writing is great and so is the sound, specially the guitar riffs, solos and melodies. I was surprised that the reviews I've seen are not as positive as mine. I suspect that's due to the fact that the album departs from the darker and doomy characteristics of the, also very good, previous albums. But I took this album in comparison to other 2020 releases and in an year like this, a well written and produced traditional heavy metal album is definitely fitting well in my agenda.  

SCORE: 85/100

Genre: Heavy Metal

Released by Century Media Records on October 16th, 2020

Rating System*
99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
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