SPIRITBOX: “TSUNAMI SEA”

(Late last week the Canadian heavy metal band Spiritbox released their second album, and today we’ve got Wil Cifer‘s review.)

Before you throw the LaPlante out with the bathwater, it might be easy to write this band off as a pop act. After all, they are an evolution of Myspace metal. However, I might go as far as to say that this album is more inspired than Knocked Loose’s You Won’t Go Before You Are Supposed To, which was one of the heaviest albums since Sunbather to catch the ear of more mainstream audiences. It certainly takes more chances and employs a wider range of sonic colors, rather than hits you with blunt force you bob your head to.

If your eyes have skimmed any of the reviews I have done for this fine site or other of the more devious ones you might have stumbled across on the Dark Web, then you know this is outside of what I normally listen to. If you caught the trail of breadcrumbs that starts with Chelsea Wolfe covering one of their songs, then you might be getting warmer.

Most of the more emotional musical children spawned from the legacy of Meshuggah have guitar tones I hate, with everything sounding too formulaic. My normal listening of blackened grindcore or suicidal black metal has none of the massive production found on this album. But Spiritbox is no longer playing the kind of clubs Glassing or Portrayal of Guilt are. These are massive-sounding songs that are meant to get the huge festival fields moving.

The guitar riff that opens this album is a massive wall of sound. Courtney has an impressive roar that I prefer over most of her female counterparts. “Black Rainbow” carries a robotic crunch, which constricts around its coiling riffage. The cyber-grind of low-tuned guitars is always balanced out by an atmospheric melodic element. Sometimes this is the role LaPlante’s voice plays, at other times it’s the eerie ring of another multi-tracked guitar.

“Perfect Soul” is anthemic, and rock radio-friendly. Ya, gotta pay the rent somehow, and it was hooky enough to make me keep checking my inbox for this album. “Keep Sweet” also showcases their talent for writing a great hook. There are electronic elements present, but even though experimenting with drum loops is a deal breaker they balance it out with crunchy screaming parts; but yes, this is more mainstream than 200 Stab Wounds, but for the music business to remain in motion after the Pandemic putting it on life-support, you need some bands who are going to get asses in the door but preferably doing it in a way that’s worth respecting in its songwriting and musical prowess, which is what even this album’s most accessible moments accomplish.

“Soft Spine” hits pretty hard, no matter what genre of music we are talking about. I was waiting for the hot girl summer singing to come, but she is just pissed here. The title track finds mathematics chugging ebbing and flowing from her nuanced croon. Things shift into an even more progressive direction for “A Haven With Two Faces”. This is where I have to give props to drummer Zev Rosenburg — this is a guy to pay attention to. He has an ear for detail and there is some really impressive work going on underneath it all here. “No Loss, No Love” is one of those songs where they take all kinds of chances and it seems to fall in place. I suppose it can be filed under metal-core, though that is simplifying it.

Yes, she toys with auto-tune on “Crystal Roses” but uses it as an effect rather than relying upon it to bolster her voice, and the song is a weird pop tune of sorts, but what pop music might sound like on DMT? “Ride the Wave” carries more melodic sensibilities. But even in their most pop-slathered moments, the most respectable fact is they wrote them all. There weren’t teams of songwriters reading focus group comments to see if they should put a cowboy hat on a song.

At the end of the day it is never about the massive crush of guitar tones they slap you with, but songwriting. This is what has put them at the top of their game, as this album will be their push into another level of success that they deserve, and they won me over. This album is not going to be for everyone who reads this blog, but if you like heavy progressive music this album is worth checking out as it does more than what one of the wanking bands like Dream Theater are shooting into your ears. Instead, we just got catchy tunes that I’ll be humming well into LaPlante’s hot girl summer, after forgetting that one really heavy black metal album that I loved for three days.

https://spiritbox.lnk.to/TsunamiSea
https://www.facebook.com/spiritboxofficial
https://www.spiritbox.com/