I guess all good things must come to an end. Actually, so must all bad things. I guess we can just say that everything must end eventually. Everything. And so it is with SPIRIT ADRIFT. On April 10, 2026 the band simultaneously released their sixth full-length studio album, Infinite Illumination, as well as announcing that "the end has come"—for the band, that is, not some worldwide cataclysm, though to some it might feel that way.

Infinite Illumination is a befitting last album for the band. They step out of the game just as heavy and legit as when they first stepped into it. A true class act and a great final album. Cover art a solid meh, but the album itself, stellar.

So on to the album: eight tracks for a nice fat 46 minutes of run time. Thematically there seems to be a lot of introspection here. Not on a personal level but more like character sketches, like what if there was one person who looked at their life from an 'on high' perspective and what they saw was a life "buried in the shadow of the cross" or an entity who was ultimately "born in a bad way." I don't know, I guess it could be one unified narrative if you stepped back a bit and kind of squinted your eyes and maybe had a couple of shots. Either way, some interesting and curious lyrics to dwell on, especially with those heavy inflections of doom leading the way.

My favorite tracks, because I know you're just dying to know, are "Born in a Bad Way," a rafters rattling bastard of a track; "I Am Sustained" for that bad ass closing which begins at about the 4:09 mark; and "Buried in the Shadow of the Cross" for the wicked implications of it all. The other five are top-notch as well, but there has to be a top three and those are mine.

I just checked and the only SPIRIT ADRIFT album I don't have is their 2024 live album, so one more to go before I close this book and put it on the shelf so I can take it down and read it whenever I like, which will probably be often. As their press release noted: "Long after the band is gone, fans will continue to discover the SPIRIT ADRIFT catalog and witness the breadth of greatness they delivered in just a decade's time." True enough, that. Also, looking forward to seeing what new projects these lads will show up in. Until then, hails and horns to a great band.