# Tsunami Sea

Tsunami Sea is the second studio album by the Canadian heavy metal band Spiritbox. It was released on March 7, 2025, through Pale Chord and Rise Records. After releasing two extended plays in 2022 and 2023, it is the full-length follow-up to the highly successful Eternal Blue (2021).

## Background

After production issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release for 17 months, the band's debut album, Eternal Blue, was released in September 2021 to overwhelming success. The pandemic also disrupted the album's promotion cycle; each of the first two tours the band had ever attempted ended up being cancelled, the latter of which almost caused them to collapse from financial hardship. Thanks to gifts from other artists, the band stabilized and was able to continue. The band's first full tour finally proceeded in early 2022, and touring for the album's promotion concluded in mid-2023. In the interim, the band released the extended plays Rotoscope and The Fear of Fear in mid-2022 and late 2023, respectively. The Fear of Fear contained "Jaded" and "Cellar Door", two songs which would each be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in consecutive years.
On December 14, 2023, LaPlante confirmed in a Revolver interview that the band planned to create another full-length album in 2024. That same day, Korn announced a July 2024 concert in Poland which featured Spiritbox as a guest. The following month, it was announced Spiritbox would accompany Korn for their United Kingdom tour in August 2024, and a few days after that, it was revealed the band was briefly in a recording studio with Jordan Fish, the keyboardist who had recently departed Bring Me the Horizon.

## Promotion

Spiritbox will embark on a European headlining tour in February 2025, making five stops in Germany and one each in London, Paris and Tilburg. On September 6, 2024, the band released the single "Soft Spine"; a music video for the song followed on September 26. On November 18, the band announced the title of the album would be Tsunami Sea. Set to be released on March 7, 2025, the band released the album's second single, "Perfect Soul", alongside the announcement. A North American tour supported by Loathe, Dying Wish, and Gel will begin in early April 2025. The album's third single, "No Loss, No Love", was released on February 6, 2025. A fourth track, "Crystal Roses", was briefly released on March 3, 2025. According to LaPlante, however, the band did not authorize its release, and the song was shortly removed.

## Composition

Musically, Tsunami Sea has been described as a metalcore, alternative metal, and djent album that experiments with spoken word, electronic, drum and bass, industrial metal, alternative rock, pop, electropop, and EDM.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 9.1/10 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| The Arts Desk | |
| Blabbermouth.net | 8/10 |
| Distorted Sound | 9/10 |
| Dork | 5/5 |
| The Guardian | |
| Kerrang! | 5/5 |
| Metal Hammer | |
| NME | |
| Wall of Sound | 9.5/10 |
Tom Carr of The Arts Desk called it "a sonic assault" that is "graceful and beautiful". Anne Erickson of Blabbermouth.net wrote, "Spiritbox don't take many chances on "Tsunami Sea", but that makes sense considering that the sound and style they've honed is so popular right now." Will Marshall of Distorted Sound wrote, "With the difficult second album, they’ve improved on it in every way. Just as polished, but re-embracing the djent and prog elements that made them so exciting in the first place, as well as bringing in more electronic influence." Writing for Dork, Dan Harrison called the album "heavier, weirder, and more expansive than its predecessor." Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian complemented the band's willingness to experiment and was positive overall, but also felt that the "adventurous songcraft occasionally gets the better of them," and wrote that "the production throughout is heavily compressed sometimes to the detriment of the low end."
James Hickie of Kerrang! stated, "If you loved Eternal Blue, this is the record you’d want to hear next...If, however, you felt Eternal Blue wasn’t quite bold enough, then strap in for something choppier." Rich Hobson of Metal Hammer called it the band's "most focused artistic statement to date" and also wrote that it "doesn't just match the instant-classic status of their debut: it surpasses it." Tom Morgan of NME praised the album mix of heaviness and beauty writing, "The punishing elegance of Spiritbox’s new album will punch a hole through your chest and wrap its aqueous arms around your heart." Paul Brown of Wall of Sound wrote, "The progression between Eternal Blue and Tsunami Sea needs to be noted...the band...come out the other side confident in their material...to some, those signature djent riffs may come across as stale and overused; but...they've simply evolved into a beacon of recognition which helps you identify the group."

## Track listing

All lyrics are written by Courtney LaPlante; all music is composed by LaPlante, Mike Stringer and Dan Braunstein.

## Personnel

Spiritbox
* Courtney LaPlante – vocals
* Josh Gilbert – backing vocals (tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11)
* Mike Stringer – drums, guitar, bass, production, engineering
* Zev Rosenberg – drums
Additional personnel
* Zakk Cervini – mixing
* Julian Gargiulo – mixing assistance
* Ted Jensen – mastering
* Dan Braunstein – production, engineering
* James Knoerl – additional engineering
* Zach Tuch – engineering

## Charts

Chart performance for Tsunami Sea :
| Chart (2025) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 34 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 10 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 80 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 59 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 83 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) | 39 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 12 |
| Japanese Download Albums (Billboard Japan) | 75 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 36 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) | 8 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 21 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 17 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) | 1 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) | 3 |
| US Billboard 200 | 26 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) | 4 |
| US Top Rock & Alternative Albums (Billboard) | 3 |