Spirit Adrift’s ‘Ghost At The Gallows’ Delivers A Delightful Dose Of Classic Heavy Metal

After 2020’s immaculate LP, Enlightened In Eternity, Spirit Adrift established themselves as one of the scene’s most competent modern metal outfits. With clear cut influences ranging from Black Sabbath, Metallica, Type-o-Negative, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne and a plethora of household icons, sonically Spirit Adrift leave no room for filler in their monstrous riffs and meticulously crafted LPs. Now with the release of their fourth studio album, Ghost at the Gallows, Spirit Adrift further revitalize classic heavy metal tropes with a number of refreshing twists and unique song arrangements. For fans who’ve followed the band since 2016’s Chained To Oblivion, Ghost at the Gallows easily presents itself as the most polished record from the band to date. However, while Spirit Adrift brilliantly recapture and reinvent many classic metal tropes there’s still a lingering question — can the band’s old school approach to metal songwriting connect with a larger more modern audience?

For what it’s worth, the relevancy of this question is only due to the fact that Spirit Adrift are incredibly talented musicians and songwriters, namely founder and lead songwriter Nate Garrett (guitar/vocals). The sheer number of gargantuan riffs and jaw dropping guitar moments on Ghost at the Gallows is the strongest aspect of the record. At this point in their career it’s more commonly known that riffs and fiery duel guitar solos are what Spirit Adrift excel at. However, I was surprised by the number of different song arrangements throughout GATG.

In particular, “These Two Hands” is a great change of pace for the band as it offers a beautiful acoustic arrangement with some solemn and intimate vocals from Garrett. Speaking of, lyrically this record is fairly deep specifically in dealing with grief. Garrett stated, ”I didn’t realize it when I was writing, but the new album seems to encapsulate the grieving process. I realized when I was done with it that lyrically all the stages of grief are present. It’s a way to mourn, it’s a way to grieve, to take painful things that happen in our lives and make something powerful and positive out of it. That’s been the goal with this band from day one.” This deeper emotional weight is certainly present throughout the album’s eight tracks and especially so on the climactic title track, which stands as one of the band’s best songs to date.

As much as I adore and praise what Spirit Adrift accomplish on Ghost at the Gallows, it all begs the bigger question of how does a smaller act like Spirit Adrift, a band armed with with arena size riffs and talent, actually fill up arenas? Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, and Metallica, whom Spirit Adrift takes heavy influence from, are long past their prime and will all soon be retired. Will long tenured metal fans look to newer bands like Spirit Adrift to fill the void? That question remains to be seen but I believe Spirit Adrift will need to get out of their comfort zone if they’re looking to take things to the next level and carve out space for a larger audience.

The band Ghost for instance, while not every metal fan’s cup of tea, manages to take the best elements of classic heavy metal and make them palatable to a wide range of metal and rock listeners, and I’d wager it’s not only a result of the band’s theatrical aesthetics. While both Spirit Adrift and Ghost are different in their own right, there are certainly aspects the two share in common and it’d be interesting to see if Ghost’s popularity and fanbase could connect with a band like Spirit Adrift.

With that being said, there’s a lot to love on Ghost at the Gallows and at only eight tracks long Spirit Adrift manage to pack a plethora of memorable moments and hard hitting riffs. And for as vast an ocean that metal can be, there are few modern bands that can pull off superb metal songwriting quite like Spirit Adrift.

Essential tracks: “Barn Burner,” “These Two Hands,” “Ghost At The Gallows”

Verdict: 8/10