Spirit Adrift’s Final Record Locates Heavy Metal’s Shared Center

Spirit Adrift began in traditional doom territory, but over time they shifted toward leaner, more melodic heavy metal. Their latest—and, they say, final—album Infinite Illumination doesn’t just continue that evolution; it argues that the boundaries within heavy metal were never as rigid as they seemed.

The record draws from Black Sabbath’s slow-motion gravity, the twin-guitar interplay of Thin Lizzy, and the tight speed of early Metallica and Diamond Head, often within the same song. “I Am Sustained” opens with a traditional metal gallop, its dual leads spiraling into classic rock territory, while moments of thrash-like acceleration strain at the mid-tempo structure. The title track pulls from 1980s doom—sharp riffs and piercing vocals over deliberate pacing, reminiscent of Trouble. On “Window Within,” the groove turns southern, thick with a Corrosion of Conformity-style swing and grit.

What holds these pieces together is an unwavering heavy metal core. Nate Garrett and his bandmates treat doom and thrash not as opposing poles but as extensions of a shared lineage. The album’s slower passages on “Born in a Bad Way” and “White Death” drag thrash-shaped riffs down to a trudging pace, contorting them without losing their identity. The psychedelic gloom of “Where Once There Was an Ocean” feels cut from the same cloth as the record’s faster, more direct moments. Rather than revive a specific era, Spirit Adrift reframe the genre’s internal connections, reminding listeners that heavy metal’s supposedly separate branches have always been part of the same tree.