Review: Spirit Adrift – Infinite Illumination

April 10, 2026

Does going out on a high note make it easier or harder to say goodbye?

The year of our lord 2025 seemed to be quite the motherfucker for Spirit Adrift’s Nate Garrett. His wife’s sudden stomach cancer diagnosis forced a shuffling of priorities, as it would for anyone whose partner is dealing with the same. A planned Spirit Adrift tour was canceled, and Garrett slowed down releasing episodes of his podcast Big Riff Energy, aside from the occasional check-in. He sold off some his gear and launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to help with the astronomical cost of treatment (fuck you, insurance companies). Last month Garrett also surprisingly announced that Spirit Adrift would wind down activity after the release of a new album with no firm details on when the album would be released, only that it would be here sooner than expected.

Well, sooner than expected has finally come and Spirit Adrift’s 6th and final album, Infinite Illumination, is here as a surprise drop on 20 Buck Spin. Garrett has talked a lot about the process of writing and recording the new material on his podcast over the past year; it’s clear that he feels strongly about the strength of the material on the album and that he has been inspired despite everything that he and his family have been fighting against during its production. It was really hard not to get excited for it after hearing him talk about it and now that it’s here, it’s undeniable that Spirit Adrift is going out on a high note where too many other bands tend to miss their exit.

While their last two albums, 2020’s Enlightened in Eternity and 2023’s Ghost at the Gallows were propped by anthemic songs that sounded like they could easily fill stadiums, Infinite Illumination is much more gloomy and leans harder into Garrett’s doom influences like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, resulting in something that stands more closely alongside Spirit Adrift’s earlier work.

Infinite Illumination begins with a strummed acoustic guitar that gives a sombre introduction to the opening title track; the drama is high from the get go. Once the full band crashes in, there are some serious Warning vibes that pull me right in. The song features the first of many chuggy riffs on this album (Big Riff Energy is more than just a clever podcast name, of course) as well as a funereal chorus with open arpeggios drenched in reverb. Before the song is over, we also get slightly out of character but very welcomed tremolo riff. I can’t recall having heard much of that with Spirit Adrift, but Garrett was once in Gatecreeper, so it’s not necessarily a surprise in his toolkit.

On “You Will Never Hold the Key,” each new riff and tragic harmony hits like a ton of fucking bricks. These aren’t even Spirit Adrift’s most complex riffs but I’ll be damned if they aren’t some of the most potent ones; everything here is so well written by Garrett and captured once again by Duel’s Jeff Henson at Red Nova Ranch on the eastern outskirts of Austin.

When I listen to “I Am Sustained” I can’t help but daydream about Messiah Marcolin breaking out the old robe again and stomping on some poor floor. The song is a highlight of the album with its steady tempo and infectious guitar harmonies, even featuring a guest solo from James Murphy (Testament, Death, Obituary, etc.). Gnarly hooks, anthemic key changes, sudden shifts in guitar tone, and even another tremolo riff make this song a bag of surprises and really fun to listen to.

I can often be a stickler for production for how it adds to or subtracts from the overall vibe of an album so I really appreciate that Infinite Illumination is clean but not perfect. Don’t get me wrong; it sounds great but it’s not overly polished. Some people like hearing the human fingers sliding and muting the strings, and I am some people. Also, on the subject of vibe, look at that impeccable cover artwork by Arik Roper (Sleep, Kvelertak, Windhand). What is that squidly eyeball griffin going to do to that wizard?

The closing song “Where Once There Was an Ocean” is probably my favorite. When a song starts with a synth swell, you know it’s going to fuck you up good. After the massive buildup it’s just great riff after great riff, competing with the opening title track for the best song on Infinite Illumination, which is an album full of some of Spirit Adrift’s best material. I love how the guitar tone continually shifts, as it does in a few other songs, and really adds extra dimension. The chuggy outro riff is so simple yet so effective. It should be a lesson to bands who try way too hard to write a clever riff. Look, this is really all you need to do.

I’ll surely miss Spirit Adrift and I’m kicking myself for not buying tickets in time for their sold out final show just down the road from me in San Antonio, but thankfully I did see the band last year in Austin and have had the opportunity to chat with Nate Garrett a few times since he moved to the Austin area, where I also live. Whether he’s done for now or done for good, Garrett has given us a solid 6 album discography where there are no dips in quality, only forward momentum all the way to the final moments of Infinite Illumination.