Spirit Adrift are back with a new full-length, entitled “Ghost at the Gallows”. The follow-up to 2020’s “Enlightened in Eternity” comes out on August 18 via Century Media, and delivers the band’s most fully realized work to date. This is 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.
Having released two EPs in the last few years – namely 2021’s “Forge Your Future“ and 2022’s “20 Centuries Gone”, the road lead to the new album was nothing short of a massive undertaking.
Nate 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. The involvement of new members from their touring lineup in the writing and recording of the album brought a new dimension to their sound. Tom Draper (guitars), Sonny DeCarlo (bass), and Michael Arellano (drums) added their own spin while maintaining the core of Nate’s intentions.
With the common theme between the songs being the search for what death represents, there’s something for every taste in “Ghost At The Gallows”. From the twin guitar epicness of “Give Her To The River” to the plodding single “Barn Burner”, the thrashy elements of “Hanged Man’s Revenge” all the way to the triumphant title track, the listener is invited to a journey with many twists and turns. The rewarding conclusion could not be any different than “traditional metal is alive and well”.
Garrett sat down with Rodrigo Altaf to discuss the current state of the band, the creative process and inspiration that led to “Ghost at the Gallows”, his musical influences as guitarist and singer, the album’s artwork, the band’s current line-up, the upcoming touring plans, and much more. Listen or watch their chat below, and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, Sonic Perspectives is on Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and YouTube, where you can be notified about new content we publish on a daily basis.
“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.
“Ghost At The Gallows” track-listing:
- Give Her To The River
- Barn Burner
- Hanged Man’s Revenge
- These Two Hands
- Death Won’t Stop Me
- I Shall Return
- Siren Of The South
- Ghost At The Gallows
