I’ll be honest with you, I’m not too familiar with the heavy metal scene here in Vancouver. I’m sure you know some great artists from the scene, but for me, it’s just been one of those genres that I’ve been meaning to dive into but haven’t yet. So why don’t we change that shall we? I’d like to learn more about some of the local heavy metal bands we have here and really uncover what makes them so special and what they’re doing to separate themselves from others.

So I decided to listen to a band who is from B.C and learn more about them and why people love their music so much, while also getting more familiar with the heavy metal scene. The band I decided to listen to is Spiritbox which originated from Victoria B.C.

This is a band that has done quite well for themselves over the past few years and continues to do so. I have heard some good things about Spiritbox. I’ve heard some good things about Spiritbox from some friends but never got around to checking them out. So is the hype about this band worth it?

To learn about Spiritbox, I thought it would be best to listen to two of their bigger songs. The first one being Jaded. This song is pretty enjoyable for the most part. I like the instrumentation on this song and the vocals from lead vocalist Courtney LaPlante were very good. I feel as though it can be hard to really nail the screaming voice that a lot of heavy metal band vocalists do, but I think LaPlante does a really good job with the screaming in this song. For me personally, I prefer songs that aren’t entirely screaming and have regular vocals mixed in, so that makes me enjoy this song a bit more since there was a good balance of the two vocal styles. Overall this was a good song, but nothing too note-worthy.

The second song I listened to was Circle With Me. This song was fine for the most part as the vocals by LaPlante were quite good once again and the guitar and drums sounded great too. The one problem I have with this song though, and the same goes for Jaded a bit too, is that their instrumentals sound like stuff I’ve heard before many times. There isn’t anything all that unique to it which kind of takes away from the songs a little. But that’s just more of a nit-picky thing because overall I do enjoy the band’s music quite a bit.

So while Spiritbox does have a few flaws in my opinion, I do think overall they’re a pretty enjoyable band. And maybe I just need to dig deeper into their discography to find more things I’d enjoy. If you have any suggestions for songs to check out, please let me know.

There’s still a ton I need to learn about the music scene in Vancouver and I am excited to learn more and hope you join me for the ride!