Spirit Adrift : "Curse Of Conception"

When the first song opened I had to go check and make sure this wasn't the singer from In Solitude. There seems to be more of a longing in his wail this time, he lets his voice crack right from the first phrase. The melody to  the title track comes dangerously close to ripping off Sabbath's "Megalomania" ,but it breaks away from this when they pick up the pace. "To Fly On Broken" is the first song that really speeds up out of what I consider doom tempo and leads them more in the direction of NWOBHM bands. The twin guitar harmonies further enforce this. Around the songs' four minute mark there is an excellent dynamic shift towards a more melodic introspection. Then things go even further into a melodic direction. This reminds me or Judas Priest's more blues tinged side. The vocals have great clear resonance to their tone. There is a slight power ballad mood to the song though like say "Beyond the Realms of Death" or "Fade to Black" it's done with more of a melancholy.

One thing about this record that I like are all of the guitar solos are in context of the song and tasteful for what they are rather than using the song as bookends for adolescent wanking. Things get heavier for "Graveside Invocation" now they are more of an early thrash tempo and have forsaken doom altogether . This brings In Solitude back to my mind. The vocals have begun to win me over , as much of the more power metal like singing that pays homage to the greats like Halford and Dio come across too polished and feel more like Journey. This is an instant turn off for me. Nate Garrett doesn't venture up into the metal yodel, and keeps an angry tension to his vocal chords most of the time. There is more of a mid-temp swing to "Spectral Savior" which is more of a straight up rocker.

They get some interesting tones and it's certainly well executed as a stand alone song I think "Wakien" would have worked better as part of a larger work. "Onward, Inward" is heavier and darker. The guitar tone gets pretty fucking dense for these guys. The vocals sit over the riff more like something Candlemass would do. Garrett reaches down into his guts for a lower more forceful gruffness for the chorus. The only slightly obnoxious moment on the album is the brief solo burst preceding the breakdown. This is quick so largely forgivable. The end result is this album rocks pretty hard, I mean I am putting it on my iPod for Dragon-con so that has to be worth something and by sheer merits of that fact alone I can round it up to a 9.5. It comes out Oct 6th on 20 Buck Spin.