Canadian metal trio Spiritbox tweeted that today, March 1, is their last day in the studio. They’re wrapping up the recording sessions for their debut album, which began about three weeks ago. The title, release date and tracklist for the project have yet to be revealed.
The band’s tweet only said as much as “Today is our last day in the $tUdi0,” but vocalist Courtney LaPlante added to that on her own account. “I really really hope you like our album 💙,” She tweeted. “Since we had to keep pushing it back for a full year we have a lot more hype to live up to…it’s suspenseful…Now I rest.”
Today is our last day in the $tUdi0
— Spiritbox (@spiritboxband) March 1, 2021
Since we had to keep pushing it back for a full year we have a lot more hype to live up too…it’s suspenseful
— courtney laplante™️ (@corklezlaplante) March 1, 2021
Since releasing their self-titled EP in 2017, they’ve put out a lot of singles. They compiled the first five of those in a Singles Collection release in 2019, including “Perennial,” “Electric Cross,” “Trust Fall” “Belcarra” and “Bleach Bath.” Since then, they’ve shared four more singles, “Rule of Nines,” “Blessed Be,” “Holy Roller” and “Constance.”
Spiritbox hasn’t allowed themselves to be confined to one sound, whether between songs or within songs. They draw from progressive metal structures and dissonant djent breakdowns just as often as cleaner alternative metal with melodic vocals and dreamy atmospheres. LaPlante’s refreshing vocals, Michael Stringer’s guitar and Ryan Loerke’s drums all contribute to separate Spiritbox from other acts in the scene.
LaPlante gave some more details to Metal Hammer in December about Spiritbox and the album’s recording. “The freedom of having a new band is like the freedom of having no baggage and having no preconceived notions of what it should sound like,” she states. “It’s been very freeing for me.” She also mentioned that songs like “Holy Roller” came together quickly as something fun to play on tour.
As for the recording process, it’s pretty DIY. “I literally don’t think our band would exist without the technology and the accessibility of today,” LaPlante comments. “We’re almost as DIY as you can get. We do send music out to be mixed and mastered, but we record everything and edit it ourselves. We’re all in our late 20s, early 30s and we’ve all collectively toured a lot. I can’t afford to go on a DIY tour across Canada. Like, if we have one bad tour I’ll just be ruined and our band will have to end. We’re DIY, not by choice, but by necessity.
She concluded by announcing Spiritbox was putting out this full-length and explaining what that means for the band, “We don’t have to have every song we create feel like a single; we can experiment more and have more fun exploring different song structures. I just feel like, over the last couple of years, everyone in the band has decided that we also sometimes want to have fun when we’re playing our music!”