On their forthcoming LP Ghost At The Gallows, Spirit Adrift deliver their most fully realized work to date; a record that confidently stands at the crossroads of heavy metal at its most epic and elemental and hard rock at its most honest and heartfelt.
This magnificence is front and center on the band’s latest single, “I Shall Return.” A classic metal anthem, the song revives the spirit of 1980’s hard rock stadium dominance with a jolt of modern relevance. Catchy and uplifting on the surface, the song’s deeper themes explore what happens to us upon physical death. Spirit Adrift‘s Nate Garrett comments, “At the intersection of heavy metal and metaphysical, the lyrics describe how we never truly die, and that the universe recycles our matter and energy in an infinite cycle. On a long enough timeline, maybe we do return.”
Listen/save Spirit Adrift’s “I Shall Return” on DSP’s.
Watch / share “I Shall Return” on YouTube.
The road to Ghost At The Gallows was nothing short of massive undertaking. Garrett has been weaving the sonic tapestry of Spirit Adrift since 2015, marking his own personal growth from doom metal and his much-documented sobriety to today’s sonic triumph with Ghost At The Gallows. The album intricately pulls together every element of Garrett’s riff-mongering musical mastery to arrive at a conclusion and start a new chapter for Spirit Adrift.
From the start in 2015, it didn’t take long for Spirit Adrift to strike a very loud, resounding chord with worshippers of the riff. By the time they released 2017’s Curse of Conception and 2019’s Divided by Darkness (both on 20 Buck Spin) what began as Garrett’s solo project had taken on a life of its own, placing high on year-end polls and filling clubs as Nate and an ad-hoc amalgamation of friends and bandmates brought his songs to volume-dealing life. “I’ve noticed that it really resonated with people who have gone through a lot of significant challenges in their lives,” states Nate. “Which eventually will be all of us.” Garrett attributes this to “a different level of human connection when you’re writing something real and trying to represent that musically.” The influence of “Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer and also growing up in the South, really loving old sincere country music, bluegrass and stuff like that” is the sonic soul of Spirit Adrift according to Nate.
2020 saw the release of Spirit Adrift’s Century Media debut, Enlightened In Eternity (a split release with 20-Buck Spin in North America); Garrett set to work forging a more permanent line-up for the spirited, energized release. As Covid restrictions lifted, Spirit Adrift began to hit the road as a band with a solidified and freshly empowered line-up – bassist Sonny DeCarlo, drummer Mike Arellano and ex-Carcass guitarist Tom Draper.
Ghost At The Gallows builds upon Nate Garrett’s already impressive legacy of reinventing the steel by leaps and bounds. While prior records were largely solo affairs, Ghost At The Gallows is the closest Spirit Adrift has come to capturing a band vibe. “While we didn’t track this record as a full, live band, Mike and I did track live with drums and guitar to capture that real, raw explosive human energy that’s imperfect and dynamic. I think it shines through,” says Nate of the studio sessions.
With Sanford Parker at Chicago’s Electrical Audio and Jeff Henson at Texas’s Red Nova Ranch engineering and co-producing alongside Garrett, and legendary Zeuss (Queensryche, Hatebreed) handling mixing and mastering duties, Ghost At The Gallows takes chances few of Spirit Adrift’s riff-obsessed brethren could possibly approach.
Look for Ghost At The Gallows to be released on August 18th, 2023 and catch Spirit Adrift on tour now with Midnight:
5/5 Jacksonville, FL @ Underbelly
5/6 Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
5/7 Miami, FL @ Gramps
5/9 Baton Rouge, LA @ Chelsea’s Live
5/13 San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Event Center
5/14 Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street
5/15 Tulsa, OK @ The Vanguard
5/16 St. Louis, MO @ Red Flag
5/18 Chicago, IL @ Reggies
5/19 Indianapolis, IN @ Hoosier Dome
5/20 New Kensington, PA @ Preserving Underground
6/8 Donington Park, Derby, UK @ Download Festival 2023
6/9 Leeuwarden, NL @ Into The Grave 2023
6/15 Clisson, France @ Hellfest
6/23 Cartagena, Spain @ Rock Imperium Festival
6/23-25 Gräfenhainichen, Germany @ Full Force Festival, Ferropolis
Revisit Ghost At the Gallows’ first single “Death Won’t Stop Me” on YouTube and all other DSP’s.
