Earlier this year, Canadian metal band SPIRITBOX released their tenth single, “Circle With Me,” in the span of 3 years. Despite being a rather new apparition in the metal scene, the band has found critical and commercial success as some of their videos have over one million views on YouTube. Currently, SPIRITBOX are working on their first full-length album, which is expected to drop later in the year on Rise Records.
With “Circle With Me,” the band has masterfully mixed together a poppier, more accessible sound with aggression coming from both some simple yet effective screams, courtesy of Cortney LaPlante and some heavy instrumental outbursts. There’s a neat dynamic at play throughout that goes from breathy, almost mesmerizing vocals in the verses to a bit more volume and heaviness in the melodic chorus, all the way to some powerful, grounded guitars and drums. And even if the song leans more toward clean, melodic, and poppy, it still has a healthy dose of weight behind it to feel muscular and hefty.
“Circle With Me” starts off with screamed vocals and heavy guitar licks only to transition into ethereal cleans and pulled-back instrumentals. It builds up in intensity and it’s only logical that a heavier moment follows to balance everything out and give energy and momentum to the music; that is exactly what the breakdown does, taking everything up to eleven. There are some cool guitar harmonics from Mike Stringer towards the end of the song that give the it texture and nuance, not just heaviness. All the while, LaPlante’s screams become more and more brutal, contrasting with her beautiful cleans, and bring the song to a finish on the same heavy note that it started on.
All-in-all, this is a groovy song from a band that has taken the metal world by storm with their eclectic sound. “Circle With Me” is bound to make SPIRITBOX’s star rise even higher in the musical firmament. If by some chance you haven’t heard anything from these Canadians, this is your chance to remedy that and discover a band that will be the talk of the town in the years to come.
Written by Andrea Crow
