Review by Sheri Bicheno for MPM
It doesn’t feel as long as 4 years since Canada’s explosive answer to progressive metal, Spiritbox released debut album Eternal Blue that carved the way to the bands major success.
Their sound combines brutality and ethereality, capturing many elements that are currently popular, yet they uniquely blend these aspects into their own distinctive style.
Tsunami Sea has so much going on to take in and cannot be reviewed in just one or two listens.
Every song is layered with genre and reverberating tones that carves into your core and takes you into cosmic places. A total soundscape.
We start with intro track Fata Morgana – an utter experience right off the bat with the channelling synths that wind underneath visceral djent infused riffs into a sea of atmospherics, not unlike a twist of Deftones in places.
This is truly striking start that features Courtney LaPlante’s vocal ability to reach skylines of melodic beauty to fully neck breaking gutturals, twisting into the layers of the guitars and beats of the track.
Black Rainbow seamlessly glides into a vortex of crushing riffs and speed bullet drumming straight after the intro track and lands us into a djent fuelled city of tempo shifting directions.
Zev Rosenberg tears into dynamics of blastbeats with twists of brutal double pedals and hard hitting cymbal work that fuse the sounds together with the distorted twists of guitars. A sound of epic walls and sky high energy rips through this track as Courtney takes on a synth undertone to her screams amongst a digital style of vocals.
This is a track that I feel is hugely urban and brutal – a complete force of energy that visions bright lights dancing in untold depths of darkness.
Something that I love about Spiritbox is that they fuse light and dark together so beautifully. The melodics signature their uniqueness amongst the unwavering heaviness which creates moods of empowerment, good feeling and understanding on so many levels of emotion. Total catharsis. Perfect Soul is a major example of this.
Mike Stringer and Josh Gilbert work beautifully together, delivering the moods of the track within their strings and high frequencies and give space for Courtney’s gorgeous melodic vocals to carve a flow of atmosphere to the track.
Soft Spine served as one of the singles of the album and a absolutely is my favourite of the singles that was released.
Starting off with a shimmering vocal melody entwining with synths that bleed into an inferno of groove fuelled riffs and facemelting drum beats, we see Courtney’s dynamic vocals in full show here. Barking growls amongst the echoing riffs and double pedals put this as one of the heaviest tracks on the album – and represents Tsunami Sea in it’s brutal form before we’re dropped into a lulling drift of title track Tsunami Sea.
What a beautiful vision this track paints!
The melodics are used in shades of ethereal tones and oceanic ripples of synth keys that bring the subtle cosmic vibes of the album to the forefront of it’s sound.
Haunting guitar tones align with Courtney’s beautiful vocals that blend into a soundscape that sweeps you into the crashing waves of A Haven With Two Faces.
A more progressive offering of the album, the guitars build up the track with a harmony that ripples into the DJENTLE tone of the track.
Subtle synths under the epic wall of sound entwining through eachother gives the listener more depth of moods to take in with the under tone of heavy guitars that are hidden beneath the layer of huge progressive riffs.
About three quarters of the way through the track, the tone shifts with no breaks during Courtney’s harmonious screams that end in much more aggressive expressions. The whole track is beautiful to be honest. With crashing tempo changing drums to the combination of string alignments just takes you on complete journey.
Crystal Roses takes on the alternative side of the album – a background of drum and bass -eque beats with a harmony of guitars over it catapults Courtney’s stunning vocals into a pop feeling to the album – this is a summer track for sure and gives off such an amazing vibe.
As the chorus breaks through, an atmospheric aura descends and is the album’s example of fusions of how two completely different genres can work so well together.
I could see this track being a remix in the future and used at raves and summer parties. Its such an uplifting vibe and evokes positive feeling in it’s message.
Next Track Ride The Wave is a different vibe on the album altogether – with the start giving a dark and creepy vibe that sweeps into a progressive stance of guitars and orchestral synths, Courtney’s vocals are clean here and as they run alongside the epic heights of sound, really gives me Lacuna Coil hints in this track.
But do not be fooled into a false sense of security – A minute or so before the end of the track, we are reminded that this IS Spiritbox and we’re dropped into a vat of pure filthy riffs and chunky bassnotes.
There is no playing around with predictability here. Courtney let’s us have it – her roars are unparalleled and bring back the brutal injection this track was missing.
Last track Deep End is for me, one of the most underrated tracks on the album. With moments of anthemic vibes, this has some definitely fun listening – though listen to the lyrics and Spiritbox talk to us about giving too much to others and not looking after ones own wellbeing first.
What stands out throughout this is that Spiritbox clearly retains their talent for crafting crowd pleasing tracks. Songs like Perfect Soul, A Haven With Two Faces, and the title track Tsunami Sea rank among Spiritbox’s most powerful melodic pieces, maintaining the deep soul of their songwriting.
Each track is arranged so that the listener can connect on a more than listening level, providing the ultimate album experience.
The result is Tsunami Sea: an outstanding album that might be an evolvement from Eternal Blue but a good contender for most alternative metal albums released of this year.
New album ‘Tsunami Sea’ out now via Pale Chord/Rise Records — buy/stream at https://spiritbox.lnk.to/TsunamiSea.
For tour info, tickets and more visit https://spiritbox.com/.
Follow Spiritbox at Instagram: https://spiritbox.com/
Twitter: / spiritboxband
Facebook: / spiritboxofficial
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4MzJM…
Youtube: / @spiritboxofficial
