Spiritbox surprise-release melodic new single ‘Mourning,’ their first since ‘Tsunami Sea,’ ahead of a UK arena tour
Spiritbox do not do things quietly, but they just proved they can do them without warning. On Monday, September 8, the three-time Grammy-nominated metal band dropped a surprise new single, “Mourning,” with no countdown and no announcement cycle, just the song and its video landing at once via Pale Chord and Rise Records. It is their first new music since 2025’s acclaimed sophomore album Tsunami Sea, and it arrives days before the band launches its biggest UK headline tour to date.
The track is a deliberate curveball. Where much of Spiritbox’s recent material detonates on impact, “Mourning” takes the long way round. Frontwoman Courtney LaPlante spends most of it in her clean register, riding atmospheric, restrained production through the opening stretches before the song swells into the heavier textures that are the band’s calling card. Guitars, percussion, and ambience build and recede around her rather than burying her. It is a more subdued Spiritbox than the one that closed out the last album cycle, which is not the same thing as a softer one.
A New Chapter, in Color
The visual language signals the shift too. The band teased “Mourning” with a clip shot in the stark black-and-white palette of the Tsunami Sea era, then delivered a music video that bursts back into full color, co-directed by guitarist Mike Stringer and Alex Bemis. The move reads as intentional, a page turned from one chapter into whatever comes next. LaPlante’s lyrics circle grief, though whether she mourns the living or the dead stays pointedly unclear, and the ambiguity gives the song its emotional weight.
Critics clocked the pivot immediately, noting that “Mourning” leans further toward rock than metal, trading riff-driven aggression for dynamic, compressed washes of color with lingering traces of melodic metalcore. For a band that has spent five years arguing that heavy music can be both crushing and elegant, it is a confident bet that their audience will follow them somewhere quieter without mistaking restraint for retreat.
Riding the Tsunami Sea Wave
The single caps an extraordinary run. Tsunami Sea debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart and cracked the top 30 of the Billboard 200 when it landed in March 2025, and NME handed it a four-star review, calling it “awe-inspiring modern metal” from a band pushing the boundaries of what metalcore can be. The album’s single “Soft Spine” earned Spiritbox their third consecutive Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, extending a streak that followed nods for “Jaded” and “Cellar Door.” They performed “Soft Spine” at the 2026 Grammys, and the band remains five-time JUNO-nominated on the Canadian side.
LaPlante, for her part, has been anything but idle between records. She recently teamed with Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes and producer Grabbitz on “If The Sun Burns Out Tonight,” the official anthem for the 2026 Valorant Champions Tour, due September 16 to coincide with the Champions Shanghai finals. Late last month she also announced her first signature vocal plugin with MixWave, a modular suite built around the techniques behind her unmistakable sound. Add high-profile collaborations with the likes of Poppy, Amy Lee, and BABYMETAL, and a picture emerges of an artist operating at the genre’s commercial and creative center.
The timing of “Mourning” is no accident. Spiritbox kick off their UK arena run on September 12 at Glasgow’s SEC, with stops in Nottingham, Manchester, and Cardiff before a finale at London’s OVO Arena Wembley on September 19, joined on the road by Jinjer and Dying Wish. Beyond that, the band’s 2026 stays stacked, including a support slot with Metallica at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena on November 21, part of the veterans’ two-night “No Repeat Weekend.”
For a group that has climbed from viral singles to arena stages in half a decade, “Mourning” is both a gift to fans on the eve of a tour and a statement of intent. Spiritbox are not repeating themselves. They are turning the page, and they want you watching when it lands.
