Hi, everyone. Cutie Patootie here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Spiritbox album, Tsunami Sea.

Here we have the second full-length LP from Canadian crossover metal powerhouse, Spiritbox, a band that in several short years has really grown to be one of the most widely appreciated and respected out there on the current day loud rock circuit.

And they have supporters in some of the most surprising places. I mean, millions of fans from across the music fandom spectrum. You also had that recent Grammy nomination for "Cellar Door" being in the best metal performance category. Megan Thee Stallion called on the band not just for a rock style remix of one of her recent singles, "Cobra", but the band also appeared on another recent song with her, "TYG". And Goth queen singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Chelsea Wolfe, recently covered one of the band's songs on a new stripped back EP she put out, too.

And that's just a few examples of the band's versatile appeal, which isn't too hard to understand when you look at some of the basics. I mean, that very punchy, progressive, djent-style riffage that the band still specializes in. There's a lot of cultural gas left in the tank with it these days. Also, from soaring cleans to monstrous screams, frontwoman Courtney LaPlante brings to the band not just a decent amount of vocal variety, but some distinct character, too.

There's also a real pop sensibility to how the band assembles their songs as well, and that manifests in different ways, be it through their ultra-melodic hooks, very rigid and direct song structuring, and the occasional use as well of electronics and sequenced beats. Where it comes from, I can't 110% say, could just be out of a general appreciation for pop music, or most likely, quite a bit of influence coming from a past classic, similarly mainstream metal acts that had a similar appeal like that of Deftones or Linkin Park.

Also, keep in mind, the band's founding members, Courtney and Mike Stringer, are metalcore scene vets that have a history of doing things differently, given that they started this band after leaving the quite polarizing and experimental metal outfit Iwrestledabearonce, who during their heyday, was known for pulling together elements of metalcore and grindcore and death metal and electro, too. Spiritbox, by comparison, though, goes down a lot easier, is much more palatable.

However, the more predictable elements of the band's sound and songwriting on this album, those are the spots where I felt like this album grew the coldest for me. Take the opening track, for example, which features those tight, progressive metal riffs and very aggressive snarling guitar tones that I know currently trend well and sound very loud and very aggressive coming out of something like laptop speakers. But hearing them pouring out of anything bigger or more large scale than that, in a very short period of time, I just feel drained.

Sadly, most of the guitars and riffs on this LP just don't do that much for me. More often than not, they sound a lot like electrical interference or construction equipment, malfunctioning, and not in a really cool, edgy, industrial way either. I'm even less enthused by these slow, sloshy, harmonious choruses that bust in contrasting away from these more aggressive moments that feel, again, very Deftones influenced. But I feel like the core appeal of that sound is that you really, truly do need an intense and passionate, clear, upfront lead vocal to really sell that sound. And yet, for whatever reason, Courtney's vocals are more buried in the mix on these parts than on the rest of the album and touched up to the point where they sound like not a lead vocal, but more like a random synth layer, just thrown into the mix underneath everything else.

And maybe I'm wrong, but listening to tracks on this album like "Keep Sweet" or "Crystal Roses" or the title track, for example; I don't remember this many vocal performances on the band's last album being this heavily processed. I do feel like taking things in this direction, while it does lead to a sound that is cleaner, it does simultaneously take away from the moments where I feel like the band is really trying to deliver a more moving and intimate experience, like on the closer. Yeah, it just leads to a sound and a vibe that is more sterile than it is human.

But yeah, the overall sound of this album, while it is blaring like a metal album should be, it doesn't feel consistently heavy as much as it feels persistently compressed because even the quieter, softer parts of the album sound intensely loud, too, which really kneecaps the dynamics of these songs and the overall experience of them because those louder moments don't quite hit as hard when everything else on the album sounds almost just as loud.

With that being said, though, there are some spots on this LP where the band is just firing on all cylinders volume-wise, creatively, too. I think these are the brightest moments on the album. "Black Rainbow" being a prime example where the band is not just working in these eerie, UFO-style synthesizers, enveloping the guitars in them, but they have these very odd robot-style lead vocals, too, that make me feel like I'm listening to, I don't know, some like mecca metal piece. The kick drums on this track are especially punchy. The screams are insane.

There are a few other moments on this record, too, that scratch a similar itch. Be that "No Loss, No Love" or "Soft Spine", where the band is really going in, not just in terms of the intensity of the guitars and drums, but lyrically, too, with opening bars like, "You all deserve each other / I hate the ones that love you." The writing on this track is just absolutely seething in a classic metalcore way where you're setting up a target and just unloading the clip.

"Ride the Wave" not only continues many of the album's lyrical themes of water and drowning and just being immersed, being lost in the or some water type scenario, being lost in or overtaken by something as large and as powerful as a body of water or waves. Again, consistent theme. But we do have some great sinister opening guitar leads on this track, some tension building verses, that all lead up to this absolutely explosive bridge that makes for one of the best payoff on the record.

But yeah, to me, this record, sadly, was a little bit of a mixed bag. Not quite what I was expecting it would be despite enjoying at least a teaser or two. The best moments of the album feature some okay dynamics, some progressive forward-thinking songwriting, as well as some creative genre fusions. Meanwhile, the worst moments just hit like very formulaic, current-day commercial with no natural feel to it, over-processed vocals. It essentially feels like a pop album with blaring guitars.

I get there a lot of choices out there these days when it comes to that vibe. And believe me, there are bands out there making similar music that you could do much worse than Spiritbox. Still, that doesn't really change that the production much of the time is punishing in ways that aren't exactly gratifying, that the band paints itself into a corner sonically pretty quickly over the course this very trim 43 minute tracklist, and they don't really fully explore the full potential on this record between all the guitar tones they could be pursuing, the different combinations of metal and pop and electronic music, as well as fuller ranges of dynamics, loud and soft, so on and so forth, which really would have made this the interesting and varied album it could have been.

But instead, it feels more overly processed and one note than it actually should, which is why I'm feeling a strong 5 to about a light 6 on this thing.

Anthony Fantano, Spiritbox, Forever.