MetalAlternative
Spiritbox have released «Mourning» with no prior campaign or countdown: the song simply appeared on 8 September. It’s the Canadian band’s first new music since «Tsunami Sea» (2025) and isn’t part of any announced record.
«Tsunami Sea» debuted at number one on Billboard’s hard rock chart and number twenty-six on the Billboard 200. With «Soft Spine» they strung together a third consecutive Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, after «Jaded» and «Cellar Door»; the award, at last February’s ceremony, went to Turnstile. The single catches them mid-tour: from 12 September they’re crossing Europe with Jinjer and Dying Wish — eighteen shows wrapping up 9 October in Paris, with a stop at London’s OVO Arena Wembley — on 21 November they play with Metallica at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena, and by year’s end they’ll be at Australia’s Good Things festival. The European schedule stays confined to the UK and central Europe: there are no dates in Spain.
Courtney LaPlante and Mike Stringer came from Iwrestledabearonce, which they left in 2015, forming Spiritbox in 2017 in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. The band grew mostly online, song by song, right in the middle of the pandemic, when «Holy Roller» and «Constance» gave them an international audience before their first record, «Eternal Blue» (2021), even existed — an album that already featured drummer Zev Rosenberg, who joined in 2020. Bassist Josh Gilbert, who came from As I Lay Dying, joined in 2023.
Between their two full-length records, the band has mostly put out shorter releases: the EPs «Rotoscope» (2022) and «The Fear of Fear» (2023), plus standalone singles. «Mourning» joins that list, with no third record announced for now.
Text by Sílvia Comellas