Spiritbox are on the top of the world. In just a few short years, the four-piece have skyrocketed to the forefront of the modern metal scene alongside the likes of Sleep Token and Bad Omens, earning themselves two Grammy nominations in the process— their combination of extreme metalcore with elements of pop has proven to be an influential direction, even without too many major releases from the band themselves. 2025’s ‘Tsunami Sea,’ their second full length record, attempts to refine the group’s sound even further, delivering a number of Spiritbox’s heaviest and most confident tracks yet. Nonetheless, we still feel like the band are building on a crooked foundation, polishing a formula that continues to, to some degree, neuter their potential.

‘Fata Morgana’ makes one thing abundantly clear: ‘Tsunami Sea’ has Spiritbox’s metalcore elements dialled up to as-yet-unforeseen levels of heft, leaving a cut like ‘Holy Roller’ in the dust. Mike Stringer’s guitars lumber along with an unstoppable momentum, groaning like malfunctioning machinery in the record’s heaviest moments: take ‘Black Rainbow,’ for instance, which pummels the listener repeatedly with pounding industrial metal riffs. Courtney LaPlante’s harsh vocals have never sounded more monstrous, providing a crushing backbone to single ‘Soft Spine,’ and the overall sound of ‘Tsunami Sea’s’ heaviest tracks is a dominating wall of distortion and aggression. Those suffocating moments (befitting the album’s continued theme of water) tend to be the strongest on the record, seeing the band at their most focused and confident— ‘Black Rainbow’ really is an absolute highlight, as is the stop-start insanity of ‘No Loss, No Love.’

Spiritbox are far from abandoning their melodic roots though, doubling down on their pop and R&B influences on cuts like ‘A Haven With Two Faces’ and ‘Crystal Roses.’ To be blunt, the band’s fusion of these genres with their heavier elements continues to feel awkward and misguided, even if it’s done more naturally on ‘Tsunami Sea’ than ever before. Courtney LaPlante is far too talented of a clean vocalist to bury her in the mix so routinely, never mind how doing so undercuts a number of the otherwise superb melodies the band have crafted. Take ‘Keep Sweet’ as a prime example: after the song’s programmed drums and romantic timbres establish the track as a welcome breather in the track list, it’s jarring to hear the same booming guitars and anthemic drum hits as ever come in to smother the song. Despite its best efforts, the lack of dynamics on ‘Tsunami Sea’ has yet to convince us that this particular fusion of sounds is a winning formula— rather, it’s Spiritbox’s ahead-of-the-pack delivery that sells an otherwise spotty crop of tracks.

Make no mistake though: the band’s formula may do them no favours, but they still manage to build from it successfully on a shocking number of tracks: the intentionally produced vocals and ethereal sound design of ‘Crystal Roses’ makes it a lovely cut to break up the back half of the album, and a prime example to show why the group’s softer elements are still worth exploring. Though they aren’t always used effectively, LaPlante and company prove themselves to be versatile and impressive melody writers on songs like the title track and ‘Perfect Soul,’ creating a number of choruses that will probably soar during their live shows.

Compared to the album’s heaviest moments, the softer tracks on ‘Tsunami Sea’ are far more of a mixed bag. Many of these cuts are forced to straddle the line between intrusive and dull: in the case of the forgettable ‘A Haven With Two Faces’ and the underwhelming closer ‘Deep End,’ things can stray too far into safe and generic territory when Spiritbox don’t feel comfortable amping these songs up into arena-filling epics. By contrast, ‘Ride The Wave’ demonstrates how the group’s signature collection of styles can culminate into a single experience— though the track is primarily focused on its melodic content, it nonetheless crescendos into an absolute stunner, allowing LaPlante to soar unconstrained over the track. The band’s unique style can be pulled off: perhaps it’ll be on the third album that we see such a feat done more consistently.

There’s a lot to love about ‘Tsunami Sea,’ and there’s no doubt that the album will become an influential classic for modern metal— even for those unconvinced by the band’s unique style, strong cuts like ‘Soft Spine,’ ‘Black Rainbow’ and ‘Crystal Roses’ are well worth a listen. The only things holding Spiritbox back on this release are their usual pitfalls: until LaPlante and company refine their formula into something more steadfast, it’s hard to imagine any of the group’s material breaking away from this awkward middle group between metal heft and pop brightness. Nonetheless, the band’s second album is a great step in the right direction, and we can’t help but be excited to see where the four-piece go next.