Spirit Adrift: Behind - Beyond

Ambitious debut from expansive doom trio

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For a band who’ve been around for less than five months, you’d expect this debut two-track EP to be a work in progress.

Indeed the average track length of 14 minutes and myriad ideas being brought to the table suggest a group still trying to hone their craft, yet Behind – Beyond is a remarkably well thought-out and delivered effort. Taking their cues both musically and sonically from the more melodic end of the doom scene, they still find time for both the expansive melancholy and powerful riffs of the likes of Neurosis and Baroness.

Specter Of Ruin brings hulking, Sabbathian riffs to the table but also delivers moments of introspective calm that lead to a crescendo of fraught harmonies and frail soundscapes. Perpetual Passage is a far more ponderous beast, with menacing riffs and vocals given the 70s analogue treatment.

Full-blooded roars from vocalist JK and regal passages mix with tempered, threatening melodies waiting in ambush, before a galloping Iron Maiden riff precedes a beautiful piano and synth-led descent to the finish line.

Adam Brennan

Rugby, Sean Bean and power ballad superfan Adam has been writing for Hammer since 2007, and has a bad habit of constructing sentences longer than most Dream Theater songs. Can usually be found cowering at the back of gigs in Bristol and Cardiff. Bruce Dickinson once called him a 'sad bastard'.