Spirit Breaker to Release New Album

“I don’t want to say it’s extremely different, but it’s vastly different from older Spirit Breaker material.”

It’s been a long wait for those anticipating new music from Detroit based metal band, Spirit Breaker.

The band released their first single, “Hello, Drifter” following Human Nature in 2018, along with an accompanying video. After their spring tour, the band has settled down in the studio to officially begin recording their new album.

Not to say this album hasn’t been in the works.

“We started writing new songs for a potential second record back in 2017,” says Aaron Lutas. “Like literally as we were finalizing the final tracks of Human Nature.”

Since the release of their debut album, the band has been plotting and compiling a cohesive track list for the upcoming album.

“It was kinda more like we had other things we wanted to do first to prepare for it,” says Lutas. “Things didn’t go the way we wanted them to so we just kinda felt like it wasn’t one of those ‘oh we have to put a record out.'”

One of those bumps along the road was the departure of Johnny Allor from Spirit Breaker. According to the band, Johnny has always been a part of the writing process, which has brought up the question of whether he will continue on behind the scenes.

“As of right now it’s not a yes or no topic because even though we did have our disagreements at the end of the day he’s still a very good friend of ours,” says Lutas. “We’ve got into it a lot, but thats still our boy.”

“Right now, our focus is getting the album done to the best of our ability.” says Turner.

The dedication in the production of the upcoming album is highlighting a sense of maturity in the band, which is sure to be reflected in the music.

“This is the first time that [the band] has ever heard vocals with a song we’ve written together,” says Turner. “With Human Nature no one had any idea what I was going to do in the studio until I got there and did it but now that we’ve demoed everything out no one is in the dark about what I’m possibly going to do.”

“This is the first time we’ve ever taken the time to demo every single instrument including vocals and then we kind of shy around and let some people hear it to see what they think of it,” says Turner. “I don’t want to say it’s extremely different, but its vastly different from older Spirit Breaker material.”

“Alex went crazy on drums on this record,” says Lutas, noting that the instrumentals in the album are more technical than previous work.

According to Turner, this album will have more emotionally structured parts with more cleans and ambience versus traditional breakdowns.

The new album is set to release some time in the upcoming year or so. It will have eight tracks not including an introduction track and interlude.

“These tracks are going to be experiences,” Turner says.

Lutas shares that the title track is one of the songs he is most excited for.

“Just hearing it it just hit me,” he says. “That was the first song I’ve ever got that was like it’s perfect; there’s literally nothing that needs to be switched about it. It gave me that spark again; why I’m in this band or why I’m in a band in general.”

“That song definitely embodies what Spirit Breaker is,” says Turner. “Musically, it definitely embodies what this new album is as well.”

Turner says that in addition to the title track, another song on the album resonates closely with him.

“It is the one that makes me feel peace,” Turner says. “It’s a very peaceful, yet drifty song. It is very ambient; there’s a lot of like pretty leads with almost poetic vocals across it.

“When I say clean – think Silent Planet with no heavy parts,” he says. “The song makes me feel like a weight is lifted for me. Actually, the song itself is actually about being away from home and remembering what is there waiting for you when you return. Which is weird because i never thought I’d write a song with that subject matter.”

“‘Hello, Drifter’ was initially intended to be a standalone single, but it was supposed to embody what the new album was supposed to sound like,” says Turner. “But, there are just a lot of different directions we took that style after we kind of decided on songs. Once we had everything in our hands, we were like this would be a cohesive experience because ‘Hello, Drifter is in that realm of sound that is part of the album now. The track will be remixed and remastered with the new record.”

“There’s maturity to the sound that wasn’t there on the last album,” says Martenson on working with the band in the studio. “It just all embodies that ambient, but in your face music. There’s a sound that Spirit Breaker has made for themselves now and it’s very prevalent in this album.”

“We are going to give this album the justice it deserves,” says Lutas. “That may take longer than we want it to, but in the end we’ll be happy with it and we hope everyone else will be happy with it as well.”

The complete interview can be heard on our podcast through Spotify or Apple Music. 

Follow Spirit Breaker on Facebook to keep up to date with what they have in store and check out the music video for “Hello, Drifter” below.