It might surprise those not attuned to metal’s harsh wavelength, but the genre has proved enduringly progressive. While other subgenres of rock music are content to continuously reanimate the past (looking at you post-punk), metal’s bludgeoning sonic parameters have never stopped evolving. Through the increased availability of technological advancements like high-end DAWs and seven and eight-string guitars, the genre continues to innovate in the present day.
Canadian four-piece Spiritbox encapsulate just about everything that metal can do in 2025. Their brand of crisp, dense digi-metal has proved to be the pop-conscious breakthrough that their often-abstruse djent and prog metal influences never pulled off. With their second full-length ‘Tsunami Sea’, Spiritbox have crafted a near-perfect collection of accessible heavy music whose awe-inducing brutality works in harmonious lock-step with its vibrant emotional clarity.
‘Tsunami Sea’ fuses the extreme and the serene with effortless elegance. Whereas similarly arena-scaled metal acts of yesteryear often relied on familiar compositional formulas, Spiritbox are far too ambitious to rely on such tropes. Unfathomably heavy cuts like ‘Black Rainbow’ and ‘No Loss, No Love’ prioritise alloy-textured chugs and Courtney LaPlante’s monstrous screams, while ‘Perfect Soul’ lets her clean vocals soar over friendlier, more colourful tech metal riffs. Throw in an intuitive use of electronics (see the liquid drum and bass of ‘Crystal Roses’) and deep emotional resonance (album highlight ‘Deep End’ soars) and each track ends up palpably oozing its own distinct personality.
Then there’s the layers of textured nuance. Mirroring its title, ‘Tsunami Sea’ moves with the consistency of a roiling ocean. The title track’s Deftones-channelling rhythms undulate like giant waves on a vast sea, while the layers of synth that reinforce the titanic choruses of ‘Ride The Wave’ are a sudden riptide dragging you under.
Spiritbox’s water imagery makes for potent symbolism. The internal language of ‘Tsunami Sea’ makes frequent allusions to deep, dangerous water; see the “tidal wave” and “current” references on ‘Deep End’ or the “pull me under” chorus plea of ‘Fata Morgana’, whose title also refers to an oceanic mirage. Watery depths are visceral metaphors for pain, highlighted by ‘No Loss, No Love’ where LaPlante’s macabre lyrics describe “being born in an estuary” and sensing “something sinister under the surface”.
A swaggering display of confidence by a band in total command of their craft, ‘Tsunami Sea’ is solid-as-granite proof that heavy music retains its vitality and relevancy in 2025. The punishing elegance of Spiritbox’s new album will punch a hole through your chest and wrap its aqueous arms around your heart.
