Three years after departing from his former band of 18 years Craig Rossi decided to spawn Drift into Black in 2017. A solo act in which was supposed to be a project with Craig on vocals, guitars and keyboards eventually turned serious after his debut EP Shadow People. That was just a taste of what was to come………Things got a little darker in the fall of 2018 when he released his first full length album Dead Suns Under the Forever Moon. A concept album about the downfalls of revenge. The dark, gothic, and somewhat progressive doom elements can be heard throughout such tracks as “Sifting through the Dead”, “Gone but not Forgotten”, and lastly “Death from Above”. The album garnered much attention from magazines, websites, critics, and scored high amongst reviewers.
Dead Suns Under the Forever Moon also solidified Craig’s choice of musical accompaniment with Klemen Markelj (Vicious Head Society, Sam’s Fever) on drums and Paul LaPlaca (Grey Skies Fallen, October Thorns, Spiritual Sickness) on bass. Other guest musicians appeared on the album as well including Rick Habeeb (Grey Skies Fallen, Buckshot Facelift, Reeking Aura) additional guitars, Melissa Hancock on vocals and Elizabeth Weaver on Cello. Craig also took on mixing and mastering duties himself.
Craig wasted no time after the release of Dead Suns and started writing his next album which would become Anthems from the Darkest Winter which was released in the fall of 2019. The release also featured 3 lyric videos. He kicked up the tempo a bit with some progressive death metal elements on tracks such as “The Darkest Winter” and “Snowbound” but also remained true to his usual gothic doom traits. The album also features a cover of Pink Floyd’s High Hopes. The decision to cover such a difficult song was a brave one, but turned out to be one of the highlights of the album. The cover generated close to 10 thousand streams on Spotify within a couple of months and drew some surprise among reviewers. Again, just like his previous effort Anthems from the Darkest Winter drew all positive reviews. With the same cast of characters (Paul, and Klemen) Craig decided to leave Mixing and mastering duties to Bobby Torres of Frightbox Recording. The final mix on the album was quite thunderous.
Unfortunately being a solo act hinders Drift into Black from being a live act but future plans may beg to differ. Despite of that, Drift into Black’s mastermind Craig Rossi has proven that success doesn’t just happen on the stage. He tirelessly networks and promotes all of Drift into Black’s streaming sites. Now Drift into Black is currently signed with Black Doomba Records to release an 8 song vinyl LP concept album in early 2021.