Tsunami Sea by Spiritbox | Album Review
The Canadian metalcore group excels on their sophomore album
Listen to Tsnumai Sea: Apple Music | Spotify
Vancouver’s own Spiritbox gifted us with their 2021 debut Eternal Blue, offering up a mix of angelic vocal harmonies and death metal production. It was a great blend of differing sounds not quite heard before in the metalcore scene. Even if it was, Spiritbox perfected that sound expertly, and they continue to expand and improve this sound even further on their latest release: Tsunami Sea.
Using their home of Vancouver as inspiration, and pushing their production qualities with some experimentation on various points throughout, Tsunami Sea adds more progressiveness and evolves the heavy metal genre with innovative sounds. Topped with emotional writing and moments that range from pure bliss to hellish rage, Tsunami Sea houses some of the best music Spiritbox has given us, period.
If their previous album was so picture perfect, there’s no way they could outdo themselves on their sophomore, right? Well, like what Slipknot did with their second album Iowa, Spiritbox took their nuances and cranked everything up to eleven on Tsunami Sea. The guitar riffs are tighter and chug with so much intensity, such is the case in the one-two punch of the album’s first two tracks: “Fata Morgana” and “Black Rainbow”.
Putting it bluntly, this thing slaps, HARD. At its heaviest moments, the band doubles down with insane, djent level breakdowns. The ending half of “Soft Spine” for example sees guitarists Mike Stringer, Josh Gilbert and drummer Zev Rosenberg practically shred and pound to their heart’s content. It genuinely made me wonder how any human being could make these sounds come to life.
And for Courtney LaPlante’s vocals on Tsunami Sea? Impeccable. Her deep growls and screams sound incredible. She channels a haunting fury on tracks like “No Loss, No Love”. Especially in the pre-chorus, where her screams become increasingly intense with each line. She juxtaposes these darker moments with heavenly vocal runs, her singing sounds lush and damn near angelic. The album’s melodic cuts in the forms of “Perfect Soul” and the title track showcase her voice to the fullest, it plays nicely with each track’s metalcore-centric style.
At various moments, Spiritbox steps out of the “box” a bit and brings in electronic elements that ramp up the production quality of Tsunami Sea. “Crystal Roses” which heavily draws from drum n’ bass, is a prime example of this. Over Courtney’s vocoded singing, the band relies heavily on atmospheric guitar work and digital drums to help bring the song to life. It’s easily a huge standout on the album, and a sound I would love to see the band explore again.
Lyrically, Tsunami Sea pulls from Courtney and the band’s feelings ranging from depression, religion and the music industry to name a few. There’s a recurring theme of water throughout the album, like plenty of instances where Courtney’s figuratively drowning in her emotions. A lot of passages on Tsunami Sea felt incredibly personal and Courtney does an amazing job conveying these thoughts well.
On tracks like “Keep Sweet” and “Soft Spine”, she goes against the need to become complacent on the former while aiming her sights towards the music industry on the latter (“I hate the ones that love you, and those who profit from you. It’s time to reap the tide you sow.”). “A Haven With Two Faces” focuses on the band’s hometown of Vancouver, and the isolation they feel from it. The notion that you need to get out of it, but at the same time have a sense of comfort from this place.
Courtney takes all her tears and creates her “Tsunami Sea” on the eponymously named title track. She gives listeners an idea of how deep her sadness goes with lines like: (“Tumultuous down to the bottom where I know how deep it goes.”). We don’t know how far this rabbit hole goes, but I imagine a tsunami’s worth would be damn near endless.
Towards the album’s end we’re met with the proggy “Deep End”. Serving as the final goodbye and accepting defeat. It’s understanding that you’re in this depression and being fine with it (“Down in the deep end, I couldn’t see straight. I shouldn’t be here, watching the world fade.”). While the production makes it seem like there might be a silver lining in the clouds, Courtney’s lyrics prove otherwise, ending the album in a bittersweet manner.
Despite my praises, Tsunami Sea does have some minor quirks, namely in the production department. Some of the more “experimental” aspects to the album felt awkward, such as Courtney’s heavily processed vocals at the beginning of “Black Rainbow”, or the start-stop nature of “No Loss, Love” where the heavier moments would get cut by these techno-inspired interludes. While not a huge detriment to the album, I did find these bits to be annoying while re-listening.
Overall, I’d say Spiritbox knocked it out of the park with Tsunami Sea. They took what made their debut album so good, honed in on that, and took some liberties with the production choices to make an excellent sophomore album. Lyrically Courtney’s songwriting was quite emotional and insightful. I’m sure there’s a ton of metaphors she mentioned that I haven’t picked up on yet, but definitely something I’m eager to dive more into. Even though some of the production choices were questionable, it never took away from how good this album was.
I’m giving Tsunami Sea a very strong 9/10, my second one for 2025 so far. Spiritbox has become one of modern day metal’s most talked about bands, and for good reason. Their take on metalcore is not just accessible for newcomers/veterans, but their music is insanely catchy and pushes the genre in a direction it needs to go in. Want proof? Look no further than Tsunami Sea.
Final Rating: 9/10
Favourite Tracks: Fata Morgana, Black Rainbow, Perfect Soul, Soft Spine, Tsunami Sea, No Loss, No Love, Crystal Roses, Deep End.
