Spiritbox - The Rotoscope EP

I just took a trip and a half looking up a song i've been hearing lately. It's hard when all you have are random snippets of lyrics, none of which are the obvious title of the song. I found it though, it's called Rotoscope, but that's not the point. The point is that every time i hear it i think "this really sounds like heavy-dirty Garbage." Not garbage as in trash can food, the band Garbage with Shirley Manson and Butch Vig and that other guy. Then we get to the death-metal growling and surely that's not Shirley. Aren't many female vocalists pulling double duty like that, but i'm pretty certain this isn't Jinjer. So who's this band then? Spiritbox, you say? Ooooh, it's Courtney LePlante and her husband's new band! You remember Courtney from when she stepped in when Krysta left Iwrestledabearonce, don't you? I'll pretend that's a yes. Small world. I definitely like this better than hearing her wrestle a bear (i'm unashamedly team Krysta when it comes to bear wrestling), so let's check out this recent 3-song EP, Rotoscope. Does it keep up the momentum of their 2021 album i didn't know existed? No clue, haven't heard it, but i bet we can at least answer the question "are the other two songs good?" You never know, you know? Obviously Rotoscope is pretty good or i wouldn't be writing this, but Sew Me Up and Hysteria could just be room temperature leftover songs included to justify an EP instead of a one-off non-album single. 

But Bottle, why not actually listen to the full length debut? 

I don't know, M(r)z. unattributed voice in my head. I'm sure i heard myself mention i'm an enigma wrapped in a conundrum flavored tortilla. I don't get paid to be thorough, i don't get paid at all, i just listen to whatever piques my interest, and this time it's a follow-up EP. Bean that rollerful foot beautage. 

Music nowadays seems to be all about smashing what we thought were incompatible genres together into a Lollapalooza of what the hell am i listening to, but Dark Electronica goes with pretty much anything. And yeah, Sew Me Up might actually be even better than the eponym. 

Hear me out, i'm basically a decade older than these kids, so i don't think i'm too far wrong here. This sounds like 90s Industrial Rock by kids whose gateway drug was Periphery. It's proper borderline, as in "sing this part real pretty then scream this part like you're being haunted by the poltergeist of emphysema, and i'll just program this keybord thing to bleep-bloop random samples from the on board library and dj-dj-djent-dj-djent-dja-djurg underneath it all." I love it, but you might not. It's objectively good though, and i'm totally not opposed to checking out their full album Eternal Blue in the future that is later than now. 

Here's the thing though, i've made a pact with myself that as much as possible i am going to keep the album reviews true to their intended ingestion apparatuses. These 3 songs are Spiritbox justifiably high on their own supply, meaning they'd love to keep making more music if people keep buying their album but here's a few songs they wrote in the meantime so please just listen to them anywhere. 

In theory yes, this EP is totally strong enough to make me want to order a physical copy of Eternal Blue (good or bad), but i may or may not have used up several months of my real life entertainment budget buying the entire King Buffalo LP-ography, so Spiritbox will have to take their chances during my annual gift card acquisition afternoonathon. Check out Rotoscope though, it's totally worth whatever pitiful ad revenue they get/you sit through. It's worth more than that, but i'm being honest about my impulse splurge. Sorry Mz. The Plante, but going your own way is definitely the right move. Iwrestledabearonce was a thing that had it's moment, and you've definitely proven you're destined for better. This, i mean. This Spiritbox thing is a real winner, for what my opinion's worth.