Album Review: Spirit Adrift – Enlightened In Eternity

One thing about the number of bands who wake up and have a big bowl of Black Sabbath while listening to Black Sabbath before going to band practice to write songs that sound like Black Sabbath: it’s a vanishingly small number who do it with a focus on the first two Dio-era albums, rather than the floppy, weedy riffs of their glorious early-‘70s age. Not so for Spirit Adrift. While not a total case of bare-faced worship, but their metal does nevertheless take big, obvious gulps from the more taut end of the Sabbath spectrum that gave us Neon Knights and Heaven And Hell. This is a very good thing.

Ride Into The Light and Astral Levitation are big, bold metal bangers, revelling in a bigger-is-better approach that flexes their riffs gloriously. Shades of Iron Maiden pop up in Cosmic Conquest’s lead guitar melodies, while Screaming From Beyond is a stomping slower burner that nevertheless brings heaviness brilliantly. That it’s all done with a level of garage-y grit and dirtiness only adds to their charm. Sort of like Mastodon or Baroness, this is something grand done by an earthy band.

Overall, Enlightened In Eternity is a solid metal album that manages to balance its scruffiness with style, skill and ambition. These chaps know a riff. And sometimes, such an expertise is enough to outweigh everything else.

Rating: 3/5

For Fans Of: Black Sabbath, Mastodon, Dio

Enlightened In Eternity is out now via Century Media.

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