{"id":623459,"date":"2026-09-13T14:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T14:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623459\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T14:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T14:06:09","slug":"spiritbox-review-canadian-metal-ranges-from-gothic-and-guttural-to-auto-tune-pop-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623459\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritbox review \u2013 Canadian metal ranges from gothic and guttural to Auto-Tune pop | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

At tonight\u2019s Spiritbox show, vocalist Courtney LaPlante addresses the anxiety and isolation of the Canadian band\u2019s origins: \u201cWe grew up on Vancouver Island, far away from our dreams.\u201d Now touring Europe in support of their acclaimed 2025 album Tsunami Sea<\/a>, Spiritbox show no trace of these early struggles, delivering a confident, polished performance of anthemic metal.<\/p>\n

This UK tour follows a US run opening for nu-metal icons Evanescence, with whom they share a fascination with the musical tension between hard and soft \u2013 and in LaPlante, a compelling gothic frontperson. They share a flexible approach to genre with much contemporary metalcore, deftly incorporating elements of drum\u2019n\u2019bass, R&B and industrial music. Circle With Me has Running Up That Hill-esque drums and reverb-laden guitar. The EDM-inflected Crystal Roses doesn\u2019t completely gel, but LaPlante\u2019s Auto-Tuned vocals add an interesting new texture to the mix.<\/p>\n

Extreme polish \u2026 Spiritbox. Photograph: Alana Ann Lopez<\/p>\n

Flanked by bassist Josh Gilbert and guitarist Mike Stringer, LaPlante is the anchor of the band\u2019s dynamism, known for both her guttural metal scream (exceptional during Cellar Door) and the purity of her clean vocals. If you ever wondered what a metal band fronted by Ariana Grande would sound like, it\u2019s The Void, all smoky R&B vocals and propulsive guitars. For Keep Sweet (dedicated to \u201cthe girls, the gays and the theys\u201d, of which there are many present) she switches between both modes with impressive control, like another nu-metal icon: Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. She also has great stage presence, striding in PVC trousers, trailing straps and ribbons.<\/p>\n

Despite this, it\u2019s sometimes difficult to feel involved in the show. The drapes framing the stage box the band in and disrupt sightlines. Drummer Zev Rose\u2013 also a hugely dynamic player, especially when using electronic percussion \u2013 is cut off from his bandmates on a high drum riser. The extreme polish of the music can veer into flatness, and it feels incongruous that such heavy music has little room for grit or unpredictability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to wash away all the baggage from the past\u201d LaPlante declares before closing the set with new single Mourning. Now that Spiritbox have definitively shed their demons, introducing some disruption into their supremely confident approach could take them even further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At tonight\u2019s Spiritbox show, vocalist Courtney LaPlante addresses the anxiety and isolation of the Canadian band\u2019s origins: \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-623459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}