Spiritbox surfs a wave of popularity on Tsunami Sea

When: May 6, 6:30 p.m.

Where: PNE Forum

Tickets and info: livenation.com

Spiritbox released Tsunami Sea on March 7. The followup to the band’s 2021 full-length debut Eternal Blue is an 11-song, high volume homage to its B.C. origins.

On the phone from their Victoria home, lead singer Courtney LaPlante and guitarist Mike Stringer discussed how global hits such as Cellar Door, nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Metal Performance category, paved the way for the new album.

Spiritbox is also nominated in the Group of the Year and Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year categories at the Juno Awards taking place in Vancouver on March 30.

“We are still trying to outdo ourselves on the songs and finally realized our artistic vision on Tsunami Sea,” said Stringer. “The theme of the record is about Vancouver Island and … this is the first time that everything coming out to do with the album is the way we wanted it and on-brand.”

LaPlante says that the difference between the creative process of putting out tracks for Eternal Blue during COVID-19 and having the time to be completely focused on making the new songs brings a cohesiveness to Tsunami Sea that presents the band at its best.

“We were picked up by a label while we were already releasing tracks for the first album which wasn’t fully written yet and that meant that what we were doing was reactive,” she said. “There were limits on time, money and so on with the pandemic and it worked out really, really well having to pivot. But this time, the only obstacles were ourselves with nothing else in the way.”

While many may see the band as newly minted, LaPlante, Stringer, former As I Lay Dying bassist Josh Gilbert and drummer Zev Rose are hardly beginners.

LaPlante and Stringer spent half a decade as members of Louisiana metalcore crew iwrestledabearonce. Since forming in 2015, Spiritbox had two earlier EPs to its credit before Eternal Blue debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 13 in 2021. Two more EPs, 2022’s Rotoscope and 2023’s The Fear of Fear plus a collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion came before Tsunami Sea, which is released on the band’s Pale Chord label and Beaverton, Ore., alt-rock label Rise Records.

All of this explains the veteran riffage in tunes such as Tsunami Sea’s raging opener Fata Morgana and new single No Loss, No Love. One of his favourite songs on the record, Stringer says the intention of the track was to be a mission statement for the entire album. LaPlante sounds almost unhinged growling along to the molten noize that the band blasts behind her.