An early “Album of the Year” contender, Spiritbox’s second studio album Tsunami Sea is an album that excels in every category. From the lyrics to the instrumentals, the vocals, production, album theme and artwork. Every component of this album is a home run.
Spiritbox has found a way to walk the tightrope of evolving their music while sticking true to their sound and their roots. One of the hardest things for bands from any era of music is to do just that.
Not only do they blend heavy guitars, pounding drums and brutal vocals, but they explore ethereal highs, soaring choruses and experiment with pace, sound and imagery. This album is like a well-oiled machine where every piece, section and song are firing on all cylinders.
I praise the lyrics and the instruments of this song but lead singer Courtney LaPlante is currently my favorite vocalist in metal, and in music right now. She might be my favorite of all time. Being able to have a range of demonic and angry screams to some of the most angelic singing is nothing short of amazing. If she could only do one of these two, she would still be a great vocalist, but being able to do both AND at the level she does? Objectively she is one of the best vocalists of all time.
THEMES
The two main themes of this album come from the album artwork and the title. Duality and the idea of being “two-faced” is a constant theme throughout. Not only in the lyrics, but in the sound.
I’ve never seen a band that achieves some of the heaviest and angriest sounding songs with rage-filled lyrics, while having beautiful singing, dreamlike sounds and hopeful/love-filled moments. This album is two-faced in its sound, and I mean that in the best way possible.
It is paced so wonderfully. Some songs rely on heavy metal sounds and chunky guitar riffs, while others rely on harmonies and light-filled highs. Some songs even have both heavy and light, blending emotions and making the listener FEEL how the narrator is as she tells her heartbreaking story.
The other theme comes from the title, Tsunami Sea. There are plenty of water images and symbols showcasing rebirth but also drowning and the cold and dark depths of the ocean. These images help SHOW (rather than tell) emotions through metaphors and similes making the lyrics beautifully complex. The constant but subtle waves throughout the record also help put the listener in the shoes of the narrator as we find ourselves with her, lost in heartbroken waves.
Overall, this album is complex in its sound and especially its lyrics. So, without further ado, let’s dive right into the lyrics and how the music and vocals help back this heartbreaking story that is Tsunami Sea.
Song Breakdown and Analysis
Fata Morgana:
What an interesting way to start off an album. HEAVY. Chunky and deep riffs start the song and carry on for the first minute before any lyrics come in. And when they do, they punch you in the face. Usually, the start of an album has a song that is upbeat, catchy and is an introduction to the album. While this track has moments of catchiness and soaring choruses, this is one of the heavier songs on the album.
Fata Morgana is defined as a “mirage” and the lyrics at the end of the song “fate is a mirage” alludes to the title. Fata sounds like a play on words with “fate”. Spiritbox’s lyrics have such a great blend of not only sounding pleasant and flowing well but are unique in their metaphors and fresh in the vocabulary. I think this track is very underrated and is overshadowed by the amazing ten songs that follow.
The song’s lyrics suggest there is a great loss sustained by the narrator. There is anger and lamentation, which fits with the song’s sound. On the outside, this album has incredible pacing with its sound- mixing heavy and soft. But, the lyrical tone and subject matter, and the emotions behind the words match with the heavy and angry instruments.
I believe that the narrator has lost someone. Someone she has loved so much, but not to death like I originally thought. However, to an act of selfishness. The idea that fate is a mirage, and mirages being so prominent in this song, I feel like this is her saying their love was a mirage. This grand illusion that she can’t seem to move on from. This idea of being cheated on isn’t completely revealed in this song, but more so alluded to. We get confirmation in the fifth track Soft Spine.
Black Rainbow:
There is no rest in between the first two tracks. Heavy riffs, distortion and heavy vocals start off the second track. Unlike the first song, the verses are clean vocals, or talking rather, while the choruses are harsh, the opposite of the first track. Lead vocalist Courtney LaPlante has such a vast range with soaring and catchy cleans to demolishing harsh vocals and she uses this to perfection in this album.
The almost creepy spoken lyrics sound a little inhuman, almost robot like and this is seen later in the album as well. This song builds up the breakdown masterfully. A pickup in tempo, layering spoken words with harsh vocals, leading up to an insane breakdown where LaPlante’s vocals hit like a truck. The first two tracks showcase the band’s musical talent and lyrically showcasing metaphors present throughout each song and album. I love the repetition of “Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat” its ominous, builds tension and holds a lot of meaning in just a few words. Spiritbox’s lyrics do little hand holding and lets the listener feel the emotions of the lyrics to help guide them to a meaning.
I take this song as a nonfiltered release of emotions. Almost like she is calling out her past partner. I love the imagery of a snake, helping secure the idea that she was cheated on or lied to or both. Like the snake in the Garden of Eden, it is cunning and sly. She is calling him out.
She also says “your heart is a hole” blatantly saying he has no love or even any capacity for love. This image and symbol of a “black rainbow” is his “mirage” he puts forth. It is a duality (like the main theme of this album) and a paradox. A rainbow is anything but black, filled with colors and representing peace and hope. However, the black contradicts that. It is an image saying he gives this false sense of hope, of peace and love but is black and loveless. And she is seeing through the “mirage.”
The “dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat” sounds the angriest and I just love LaPlante’s delivery of these words especially. If it’s repeated it usually is important. The idea of dissolving, then replacing, sounds like what her love has gone through. He dissolved it, he absorbed her love, then displaced it. He took in her love, was filled with it then replaced or kicked her out. He then was happy, and he continued to do this over and over.
This is LaPlante calling him out, saying there is “no pressure here, admit defeat.” She caught him. What a badass song. Too bad it’s at the expense of her love, but man from the instruments to the vocals and the lyrics… what a masterpiece of a song.
Perfect Soul:
When this song was released as a single, I thought it would be my favorite song off the album. While it’s one of my favorites, I was wrong about it being my favorite.
A “perfect” blend of LaPlante’s vocals and backing vocals of bassist Josh Gilbert. This song isn’t heavy like the previous tracks but still has the distorted riffs that are staples to Spiritbox’s sound. The last 45 seconds of this track somehow outdoes the rest of the track. Laplante goes up an octave, sings BEAUTIFULLY and makes the listener ascend. It’s such a gorgeous song. I can say this about every Spiritbox song, but this track especially shows why Courtney Laplante might be the best vocalist in metal, and even across all music. She is that talented and her range is undeniable.
“Sharpen your knife upon the stone
Cover me up before you go
So delicate the orchids grow
Buried under melted snow
So I call out your name and let it die slow
I pray that the rain will wash me up
So obvious I can’t let go
Carried in the ebb and flow”
This sounds like the narrator is alluding to a backstab, him having a knife and sharpening it. Orchids are a symbol of love and beauty, and her love is so strong it still is there even admits his cold self. Her love is growing in winter, even in his cold embrace. She is stuck in this love. She can’t let go even through the constant regrowth and decline, coming and going. The “love” he gives but also the pain he brings as well, she is trapped in this cycle.
“Imitation of a perfect soul.” This person is a master of performance, manipulation and masquerading perfection. She fell for it. She wants him to leave so she can have spring and regrow again. However, she also wants to be buried. She is torn between wanting to move on and not being able to, with death seemingly being the only way out.
As the song goes on, she is judged and almost forced into not leaving, even if she wants to. The image of teeth, a viscous and scary image used throughout, like a beast or a monster. And to say she was buried? Her death is inventible, he caused it.
To have someone say “[her] dreams are just a fantasy, and that is all they’ll ever be” might be one of the saddest lyrics of this album, of this year and from this band. It’s crushing. Seeing the effect that this man has on her, in such a negative way is heartbreaking. The exposition of this story is truly magnificent.
After breaking this song down lyrically, I love it more, but it isn’t as beautiful as I thought on my first few listens. At the surface it sounds hopeful, but the lyrics suggest otherwise. She goes from “shining a light onto thousands of eyes” to “turn the lights out.” Her dreams are and have been extinguished. This song is her journey putting out that dream, putting out the light. The last chorus hits so strong and powerful, it’s like a shooting star. It is so bright, so beautiful, but it’s the last hurrah- before getting put out, getting extinguished.
Keep Sweet:
Each song off this album is so unique and stands on their own but still has not only a lyrical but a musical theme that is consistent throughout the album. This song sounds a bit lighter than the first two tracks, but heavier than Perfect Soul. The chorus is what shines in this song. This might be one of Spiritbox’s best choruses and it’s not overdone or underused. The lyrics are not only deep when just reading, but the rhyming scheme and the flow of this song is so catchy and effortless. I also love the singing in the versus, the harsh vocals in the bridge, and then back to singing in the chorus. Just a beautiful blend of emotions and sounds.
The first lyric suggests that “hey, I can’t get hurt by others if I’m alone. All this pain was brought to me by someone else.” However, the next lyric says that it’s too late to be alone, to stop the pain. She will always live with being cheated on and this false love. She’ll be haunted by it forever. What a fucking gorgeous simile… “the honeybees”, so sweet and innocent but mixed with “rotting” and violence. It keeps the duality of the entire album, mixing sweet with disgust, innocence with evil. Two faces, like the album cover suggests.
She is allowing him to take her love, not just consume it but devour it. She wants to no longer be that vessel of love for him, she wants to “tear her heart out” and die. She has lost feelings already. But she “keeps sweet to keep safe.” This screams abusive relationship. If she says anything or is no longer “sweet” to him, will he get physically abusive? Will the facade of love disappear? I’m not sure but she is in survival mode and must be to stay alive, even though she doesn’t want to be.
She screams when there is anger. (Duh) but the lyrics always match her emotions, the emotions behind the words. I LOVE that so much. Something Spiritbox always does so well: using heavy and soft in the instruments and vocals to portray emotion, used to simply sound good.
She feels used and abused. There is a little bit of defiance in her harsh vocals. She is saying fuck you but ends with her still “keep[ing] sweet, keep[ing] safe.” She has these moments of realization, of trying to defend herself and become this new person, yet she can’t seem to overcome him (yet). She ends with wanting to tear her heart out and bleed out.
Before moving on to the next track, can we appreciate this metaphor again? It rhymes, it fits in a rhythmic patter, it SHOWS the image rather than her simply saying she wants to die. These lyrics are poems. They are beautifully written and put into such amazing music, rich with emotion. This is a masterpiece of music. I don’t care if you think this band is overrated, not good whatever. Objectively you have to appreciate the craftsmanship, the writing, just everything, even if it isn’t your cup of tea.)
I constantly find myself going back to this song. I relisten to this album over and over all the time and there are no skips, but I feel drawn to this song often. It has such a beautiful blend of heavy with sweet highs. This might be one of Spiritbox’s best choruses.
Soft Spine:
When this was released as a single, I didn’t think there would be a heavier song on the album. It is one of the heaviest, but I argue Fata Morgana and Black Rainbow claim that title.
Like the Album cover art, there is a duality found throughout this album. Highs and lows, harsh and clean, heavy and light. This pairs well with Perfect Soul as its darker, heavier and angrier counterpart. Click HERE to read the comparison between the two and why I think they were released as the first two singles off this album.
This song is a different kind of heavy. It doesn’t feel like a copy and paste from the other heavy tracks but is its own sort of heavy. I love how vast and how Spiritbox can have such a wide range with a similar sound.
This was the first single, and I can’t agree more with it being released first. This song is the main plot point of the album. It lays out that she was cheated on and backstabbed. The lyrics and the entire sound are steeped with anger, rage and emotion. The best way to listen to this story is from start to finish, but this song is a great introductory point, sort of throwing you in the middle of a story. And it gives fans what they want which is HEAVY.
“You all deserve each other” is proof she was cheated on. It wasn’t a one-man thing. Yes, he is abusive, but this shows there is someone else, maybe someone who knew he was taken and still went forth with it.
“A voyeur in my mind” is so rich. It’s an unwanted looker; someone you don’t want to be there but is watching anyway. The metaphors and images show manipulation without telling you straight up. Which is what separates skillful writing from bad.
She is calling him weak, evil and sick. Not just him, but the ones that like him, that side with this behavior, that align with him. She goes as far to say, “Your god will sort you when you die.” He’ll get what’s coming to him. This is one of the angriest songs I have heard. No room for remorse, just pure hate and anger talking, or well in this case yelling and screaming because that’s all LaPlante does on this track.
Tsunami Sea:
This song deserves to be the title track of the album. It’s one of my favorites off the album. The chunky riffs contrast with LaPlante’s ethereal and angelic voice. The heavy mixed with the light is gorgeous. I am also in love with the lyrics to this song. I love the constant allusions to water, and the imagery used. The ocean, flash floods, depth, deep, tears, tsunami sea, bottom, broken waves and the idea of holding one’s breath sounds like they are going underwater. I love ocean and water images, and this song excels with them.
I love these lyrics. “Turn all my tears into a tsunami sea” might be my favorite lyric of any song released this year.
There is an arrogance to this man. He is stripping away what makes her strong and protects her. She is at her most vulnerable and was taking advantage of. He is molding her into what HE wants, not who she is.
Storm imagery is so powerful as it’s laced with love. Duality again, her singing with heavy guitars. She is in a storm but at the center she still loves him. But it truly is a storm of emotions and it’s dangerous.
“You hold your breath for someone I’ll never be”
“You only love the ideation of me”
His true colors are showing, and she is bringing it to light. However, she can’t escape him, what he’s already done and the effect of his action. She is filled with thoughts of him and emotions because of him. She cries so much that it turned not just into an ocean, but that of a tsunami- a great and destructive wave.
It’s so tragic her saying she could lay here for hours. They are “intertwined,” she could be with him forever, she still loves him. Even after all the rage, all the pain, she still loves him. It’s painfully tragic. It almost sounds like she is falling in love as she goes underwater. She is upset and hates it, but this mess drags her down again.
It’s hard to say that she lets him do this. There is such a fine line in an abusive relationship. It’s love she feels like she needs, but she knows where it leads. The image of going down to the bottom, to the ocean floor is interesting and accurate. It’s dark, it’s cold, but it’s away from the storms above the water. You’re being surrounded and the illusion(mirage) of being held safely by the dark cold water is parallel to the “love” he gives her.
This is so poetic and stands on its own by simply reading it. However, it fits perfectly on tempo and in this song. It flows so well auditorily and as well as visually from just reading it. I could go on “for hours” this is my frontrunner for song of the year so far.
A Haven With Two Faces:
A wave like transition bridges the previous track to this one. While the name doesn’t have to do with the album title, the album art seems to allude to this song. The “two faces” on the album seem to link with this song. Many of the album’s themes of duality and love/evil are present throughout but, this title especially is linked and, in your face, not hiding behind a metaphor.
This song opens like their 2017 self-titled EP and their 2019 collections of singles. The guitars have a more progressive metal sound, and the bass is loud and at the center. LaPlante’s vocals are also very reminiscent of their earlier work. Another fitting example of the band being able to evolve while staying true to their original sound.
Like Tsunami Sea, there are many water images in this song. Examples are an island, stream, flow[ing], wake, harbor, sea and current just to name a few.
For me, this track is polarizing because I particularly love the lyrics, and although the instrumentation side is really well done and objectively good, it’s one of the weaker sounding songs in my opinion. It still is good, but if I HAD to pick a song that isn’t as good as the rest, this would be it. I just feel like there is something missing. I do love the lyrics and how it starts and ends with the sound of waves.
The image of an island is starting to form and is very prevalent from here on out. I think this island represents love. And that it is the “Haven” mentioned in the song’s title. At the end of Tsunami Sea, she is taken down into the depths by this man. In this slew of love and pain and false love, there is salvation, or the mirage of it. An island, floating above the water. It’s this hideaway as she explains it.
This island is her only hope to save her from drowning, where she has already gone under the water from this man. Being on land would be away from him, and this abuse. However, it is gone, and she is stranded in the ocean with no land in sight. She explains a stream (temporary) washes it away. She wants to have that solace, that relief back.
A forest is the opposite of these water images. It is safe, a place where she can be in peace, away from these harsh and dangerous waves. She lived in this forest beforehand, but his ocean, his waves flooded it and destroyed any sense of peace she once had.
I don’t think she is addressing him in this song, but it sounds like she is addressing god. She is hoping god or a higher being has a hideaway, something that can take her from this chilling and vicious water, that is pulling her under and killing her.
She is turning against the current, swimming against him and back to this island of safety. She is saying they are done, they are gone and washed away. However, this “haven that has two faces, one creates, and one replaces.” This haven is love. It is safe and secure; it created this love that was safe and comforting. However, it can’t last forever and will be and is replaced already. What once was love is now loss. The two faces are complete opposites. She was safe at the beginning and felt a love like never before, but now the other face has replaced it, and she is going through grief, sadness, pain and misery.
No Loss, No Love:
I have been using this song title to help cope with my own firsthand experiences with loss. There can’t be a loss, especially one that feels so strong and is so heartbreaking without love. Loss is just proof that there once was a love present.
This song is a giant metaphor for dealing with loss and finding solace in it. The lyrics read to me that facing one’s loss is tough and a vicious thing. Loss and grief seem to be personified, almost as a beast showing its teeth. However, the song title is a reminder that there once was love. The music of the song is heavy and follows along this “vicious” idea, this personified loss and grief.
In this love she was surrounded by amazing things, pearls and diamonds but she couldn’t have them. It wasn’t true love that she was experiencing. This song is her being sent down a spiral, she says this literally and is experiencing it.
However, the one lyric “there is a waste, I feel no sentiment, no loss, no love.” Makes me question my first analysis. Maybe no loss, no love is simply how she feels now. She is numb to everything. She doesn’t feel any emotions, not even a loss or grief, and not even love. Two completely different meanings of the lyric “no loss, no love.” and yet I think they both can be true, even though they are opposites.
Crystal Roses:
This song brings another switch up in the sound. The ninth song is not nearly as heavy as the previous track. It has a very unique sound to the rest of the album. The spoken, almost techno words are similar, but it doesn’t have heavy riffs. It takes more of an electronic sound with guitars accompanying this sound.
This song reaches the conclusion that wasn’t made in the previous song. There is a coming to terms in the lyric “there is a reason why I felt this way.” There will always be this connection, “an everlasting hold on you” but there is more of an acceptance to it as the song goes on. Still, the viciousness of loss is present in this song as well.
The lyrics also suggest that she might be relapsing. A siren is singing to her to come back into the water, into the hell that is this abusive love. Her “self-control disappears.” This sounds like she is getting back with her ex. She can’t resist him and still loves him, even though she knows it’s a fake siren’s song, it’s cold, freezing, but she can’t seem to break free from this hold.
Crystal rose quartz is a stone of unconditional love. She still loves him. The mention of oleander is so subtle but so powerful. Oleander is a poisonous but beautiful flower. It is alluring and enchanting but deadly, like his love. And it’s on a simple grave, foreshadowing death. Her death of the death of their love.
Ride The Wave:
This song continues the previous theme and storyline. There is someone who traveled to this “island” of grief/loss to face it and come to terms with it. However, she is alone and there is this almost defeated tone in the lyrics. This reads like a suicide note, giving up to the grief, to the undertow, to the depths.
She “rides the wave like a message in a bottle.” This is her giving into this overwhelming “tsunami sea.” It is too powerful and like a message in a bottle, it has no control over the large waves that carry it. She also describes being pulled underwater. In literature, if a character is underwater, they will die somehow. They will either drown and die, or come to the surface and be reborn, killing their “old self.”
She is on this island of love, but it has two faces, and its haven once filled with a forest has eroded and she is alone. She is questioning why she went back to him, which she did in the previous track. She gives into him even knowing all the shit he has done, she can’t help it. She is riding this wave, hoping for an apology, hoping for him to feel remorse.
This is a mix of anger, wanting him back and hating him. It’s confusing… this emotion is confusing. You hate someone for what they’ve done. You know their island (floating on roses, i.e., love) is surface level. Nothing can grow and love can’t be sustained here. She can’t live with him, on his island of fake love. She tries to hold back but I think she gives in at the end. “To break open when you pull me near” sounds like she can’t resist him. Even though she knows of his illusion and deceit, she is hopeless in resisting it.
The breakdown of this song is heavy and filled with emotion. This song again has a similar wave bridge that connects other songs in this album. I love that constant reminder, it helps set the theme and setting of the narrator.
Deep End:
Before I break down the lyrics, I want to say how much I love this song. It is reminiscent of Constance in the fact that’s its simply gorgeous, ethereal, mesmerizing. From the lyrics to the instrumentals, but especially LaPlante’s voice.
This song leaves the conclusion open. Constantly saying she would have done pretty much anything for him, and he fucked it up. She is regretting the whole thing. She went the wrong way. Love wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t meant to be on this island of fake love, where she was treated like shit. She would have done anything for this man. But she was carried away, she got lost in this fake persona, this two-faced man. She was lost in her own waves that were being pulled onto his island. Almost like fate. She accepts it, hates it but accepts it. She was lost and blames herself still, which is really sad but all too common in this situation.
“You’re an island
With a clear view
I’m a tidal wave
Pull me back to you
I would die
I would die”
It’s so simple but so elegant. One of my favorite lyrics in this whole album.
This song ends so open ended. It doesn’t have a complete conclusion. Does she end up committing suicide? Does she break free from her abusive partner and the toxic love? What we do know is it’s sad, and the narrator is blaming herself for her shortcomings, blaming herself for someone else’s abuse. Musically it’s lighter and happier, but lyrically it’s the opposite, it’s sad and tragic.
Musically the song ends the same way that Fata Morgana starts. I feel like there is no end because it’s a cycle. The narrator is trapped in this constant cycle of rage, hate, blaming herself, trying to accept it but ultimately being constantly drawn and pulled back to him. Sadly, how a lot of abusive relationships are.
Conclusion
Overall this album is just short of perfection. Everything about this album is fantastic. It shows why Spiritbox is so popular and gaining more fans. There is so much emotion and creativity in every song. This is easily one of my favorite albums of all time. It is the best album to come out this year so far.
Score: 9.6/10
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