Riding the waves of critical acclaim that have earned them back-to-back Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance, Canadian metalcore quartet Spiritbox release their highly-anticipated second album Tsunami Sea in a bold expansion of progressive, electronically-infused metalcore.
Despite recent mix-up on the Grammy’s red carpet, it’s no secret that Canadian metalcore ensemble Spiritbox have been making a name for themselves following the release of their debut album Eternal Blue (2021). Fresh off the back of a sold-out headline show at London’s 10,250 capacity Alexandra Palace last month, Tsunami Sea sees the quartet usher in a new era full of djent-laden riffs, versatile vocals and electronically infused melodies that expand the strong foundations of their previous work.
Titled after the mirage phenomenon where objects are distorted beyond recognition on the distant horizon, opener ‘Fata Morgana’ perfectly encapsulates Spiritbox’s sound: slow, harsh distorted riffs that build tension as LaPlante’s unforgiving screams enter to create a spiteful texture interspersed by segments of airy shoegaze. Ebbing and flowing between these two extremes throughout the tracklist, some of this album’s finest moments are found in the blistering heaviness of lead singles ‘Soft Spine’ and ‘No Loss, No Love’. Characterised by sliding riffs and pounding percussion ‘Soft Spine’ is “dedicated to everybody I fucking hate” according to LaPlante and is every part as malicious as it sounds. Accompanied by a big budget, monochromatic music video remnant of the Harkonnen home planet Giedi Prime in fellow Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part II (2024), Spiritbox have perfected their storytelling on this album. This is no clearer than on ‘No Loss, No Love’ where the physical landscape of their hometown Vancouver Island is depicted as sharing their aggression both lyrically “I know an island that breathes is a body that eats / And now it’s showing its teeth” and visually in the masterful music video which sees the band engulfed by enormous, crashing waves.
Never shying away from influences both in and outside the region of metalcore where they most commonly operate, the electronic style cultivated on previous singles Rotoscope (2022) and The Void (2023) rears its head at numerous points throughout the tracklist. Borrowing a riser technique from EDM, vocoder vocals and synths underpinning ‘Black Rainbow’ escalate in pitch amidst stuttering drums for the perfect build of tension that makes the imminent warped, dissonant guitar tones on the breakdown all the more worthwhile. Standing somewhat apart sonically, ‘Crystal Roses’ pushes the electronic influence further than ever before into a drum and bass track that showcases the skill of the production behind this album. Despite lacking the expected grit on the climax given the explosive heaviness that follows distorted, breakbeat spoken word passages on predecessor ‘No Loss, No Love’, this is a fun track that adds some variation to their repertoire and will be appreciated by fans of early Pendulum or NERO.
The creeping build of penultimate track ‘Ride The Wave’ inspired by unsettling, isolated melancholy guitar on John Murphy’s ‘In the House – In a Heartbeat’ from cult classic 28 Days Later (2002) offers up a final tumultuous breakdown tackling the paradoxical longing and loathing Spiritbox have for the remote island they call home. The payoff is worth the expertly crafted restraint on the buildup, but leaves room to wonder why they don’t end on this high point. Final track ‘Deep End’ falls into the familiar trap of solid yet predictable metalcore that Spiritbox lean on at other points throughout the album (‘Keep Sweet’, ‘Tsunami Sea’), although standout single ‘Perfect Soul’ illustrates how effective this emotive brand of metallic metalcore can be when paired with LaPlante’s soaring clean vocals.
Despite the weight of expectation, Spiritbox confidently deliver on stellar sophomore album Tsunami Sea. Undeniably at their best when they are pushing the boundaries of their sound, the growth evidenced in this body of work demonstrates Spiritbox are rising through the ranks of modern metal with the intention and confidence of a band who know they’re on the path to greatness.