Spiritbox

Vancouver quartet Spiritbox ply a ’90s-influenced brand of melodic alternative metal featuring multiple genre elements, beautiful vocals, and possibly paranormal EVP (electronic voice phenomena) field recordings. Echoing acts like TesseracT, Deftones, and Evanescence, their sound — incorporating elements of metalcore, nu-metal, prog, shoegaze, and djent — combines crushing heaviness with atmospheric ethereality, while Courtney LaPlante’s versatile voice swoops from gorgeous melodicism to tortured screams and shrieks. Spiritbox issued their eponymous debut EP in 2017 to wide acclaim. Their first album, the chart-topping Eternal Blue, was released in September 2021. The group continued their ascent in 2022 with the EP Rotoscope and earned a Grammy nomination in 2023 for the track “Jaded” from the Fear of Fear EP. 2023 also saw the band collaborate with rap star Megan Thee Stallion on a fiery remix of “Cobra.” Spiritbox was formed in 2016 by the core husband-and-wife duo of Courtney LaPlante (vocals) and Michael Stringer (guitar) after they had jointly decided to quit their former band, the experimental metalcore outfit Iwrestledabearonce. Returning to the normalcy of everyday life, they focused on their passion: to create music that was original and from the heart. The band became complete with the addition of bassist Bill Crook and drummer Zev Rose. They were championed by IWABO’s manager Jason Mageau, who ultimately started his own label, Pale Chord, to release their music; the label went on to partner with Rise Records. Spiritbox released their eponymous debut EP in 2017 to wide acclaim. A Singles Collection followed in 2019. Work on the group’s debut full-length was halted for almost a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing underground attention to swell as their music racked up millions of streams. When the album came out in September 2021, Spiritbox, who had played only 15 live shows, were suddenly at the top of the charts. Eternal Blue, heavily inspired by LaPlante’s lifelong struggles with depression, debuted at number one on the U.S. Rock charts and entered the Billboard 200 at number 13. In 2022, the band issued the three-song Rotoscope EP and joined Mastodon and Ghost for the latter act’s second North American leg of their Imperatour. Later that year, bassist Bill Crook left the group and was replaced by As I Lay Dying tour bassist Josh Gilbert. (Bill Crook died on July 24, 2024.) Spiritbox began 2023 by headlining their first American tour and issuing the EP Fear of Fear, which included the “The Void” and “Jaded,” the latter of which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. Later that November, they teamed up with Megan Thee Stallion for a remix of her song “Cobra.” ~ John D. Buchanan