spirit adrift - infinite illumination

the swansong of spirit adrift and its mastermind, founder and part-time sole member nate garrett. the band had many incarnations and this last album is no different.

still there was a musical common thread tied together by garrett. 'infinite illumination' is a worthy farewell leaned towards the doomier end of the spectrum. neon green vinyl out of who-knows-how-many copies. 20 buck spin. 2026.

spirit adrift - forge your future

had this since its release but forgot to post it. so here it is, the latest e.p. by spirit adrift on orange vinyl (european edition). stuff is good but i will probably forever miss the line-up of "curse of conception" and "divided by darkness". century media. 2021.

spirit adrift - enlightened in eternity

the new spirit adrift arrived with high expectations of mine. after thorough spins i can say that they were not fully met. there are some real pearls among the tracks but also a few pretty generic songs. they lost a bit their sense of mystery in favour for more straight up classic metal structures. doesn't appeal to me too much. anyway, still enjoy this record. this is an eu version by century media. 2020.

spirit adrift - chained to oblivion

there it is eventually. the debut album of spirit adrift on vinyl. there is a first pressing floating around but long sold out and i didn't want to bite the bullet of inflated second hand price tags. so this prosthetic re-issue comes in handy. ordered at first via jpc.de but they cancelled my order half the way through. then i tried my luck with banquet records from london due to lack of options.

must say that i was very satisfied with how the order went down. will probably place an order with them again. musically "chained to oblivion" is a remarkable debut, especially when one considers that every instrument was recorded by mastermind nathan garrett himself due to not having a functioning band at that point. lovely blue splatter lp's and fantastic revised artwork by jesse jacobi (who might be known for his work on the last tomb mold). 300 copies pressed. prosthetic records.

spirit adrift - curse of conception

after spirit adrift's third full length "divided by darkness" was a bolt from the blue to me, i knew i had to get their previous stuff. problem was that i found no fucking store in europe which still had coloured copies in stock. after painful months of waiting, a seller from france came to my rescue.

it was a record store from lyon which had distro titles from 20 buck spin for sale via discogs. i snagged a copy of "curse of conception" right away. it comes on lovely light blue with red and white splatter vinyl and sounds awesome. great album all around! 20 buck spin. 2017/2019.

spirit adrift - divided by darkness

it took me quite a long time to finally be convinced by spirit adrift. it started in 2017 when 20 buck spin records announced the release of the second full length by a band called spirit adrift. i never heard of them before but when they were likened to pallbearer, i was all ears. i am a fan of all things pallbearer but "curse of conception" could not really grab me.

i filed spirit adrift as "not for me" and moved on. when "divided by darkness" came out it was the same play. again i gave them a try but it did not click. while i was checking the van records store (van records is the european distributor of 20 buck spin) lately searching for the new tomb mold, i came up empty handed in tomb mold terms but found a second press for "divided by darkness". listening to the tunes this time and suddenly everything made perfectly sense. i ordered a copy quickly.

the record is fantastic. the pallbearer comparisons are undeniably accurate but that is not a bad thing. "divided by darkness" gets better with each song and in combination with the breathtaking artwork this bad boy might be the best doom metal release of the year. on a side note: after opening the parcel and pulling the vinyl from its dust sleeve, i was delighted to see that i actually got a tri-colour merge copy from the first press. lovely surprise. 250 copies made. 20 buck spin. 2019.