Intense and Dynamic Sound
"Black Rainbow," the second track from Spiritbox’s Tsunami Sea, delivers an intense, haunting, and dynamic musical experience that taps into the band's heaviest tendencies. The song opens with rhythmic, robotic vocals, transitioning into Courtney LaPlante's signature guttural screams that convey raw emotion and aggression. Accompanied by relentless drums and fast-paced guitar riffs, the track encapsulates the familiar sound that Spiritbox fans have come to love—an amalgamation of brutality, melody, and precision.
Cultural and Cinematic Ties
The song’s title is an homage to the 2010 film Beyond the Black Rainbow, directed by Panos Cosmatos. Coincidentally, Cosmatos and Spiritbox share a Vancouver Island origin, adding a unique cultural layer to the song's theme. LaPlante revealed in an interview with Zach Sang that although the movie did not directly influence the track, it served as a “writing prompt,” inspiring the imagery and overarching theme. The song touches on feelings of cultural disconnect, a sentiment echoed in the comparison between mainland Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
Cryptic and Surreal Lyrics
Lyrically, "Black Rainbow" explores surreal and cryptic imagery, with lines like "Inside the midnight, you've been slithering" and "Your heart is a hole." These lines are delivered with a poetic ambiguity, leaving listeners to interpret the meaning for themselves. The use of the repeated phrases in the bridge, "Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat," adds to the sense of cyclical tension, building the song's intensity and setting the mood for the climactic outro.
Technical Mastery in Music
Musically, the track pushes Spiritbox's boundaries, yet remains quintessentially theirs. The intricate drum patterns, searing guitar riffs, and atmospheric breakdowns showcase the band's technical prowess while staying true to their metalcore roots. The song’s heaviness and depth bring out LaPlante’s exceptional vocal versatility, blending clean vocals with visceral screams, creating a balanced, yet chaotic sonic landscape.
A Perfect Blend of Theme and Sound
"Black Rainbow" is a standout track that encapsulates the essence of Tsunami Sea—fierce, thought-provoking, and emotionally charged. Spiritbox manages to craft a song that is both thematically rich and sonically punishing, offering fans a perfect combination of technicality and raw emotion. This track is sure to resonate with long-time fans while attracting new listeners who are drawn to its bold, cinematic narrative and aggressive energy.
Listen to Spiritbox Black Rainbow
Spiritbox Black Rainbow Lyrics Meaning Explained
The meaning of "Black Rainbow" by Spiritbox is deeply rooted in themes of emotional conflict, cyclical destruction, and existential reflection. The song explores the complexities of internal struggle, where the narrator grapples with a sense of emptiness and the futile efforts to restore balance. With lyrics that evoke a haunting atmosphere and imagery of decay, such as "heart is a hole" and "infrared paradise," the track examines the tension between the desire for release and the inescapable cycle of pain and renewal. The reference to the "black rainbow" symbolizes a barrier to clarity or understanding, yet it also suggests that by pushing beyond it, there is a potential for insight, even in the midst of emotional darkness.
[Intro]
"Exit" serves as the opening line of the song, setting a tone of escape or departure. It symbolizes the act of leaving something behind, whether it's a mental or emotional state, or even the physical world. The simplicity of the word indicates a thematic shift or transition within the song, which continues throughout the track.
[Verse 1]
In the first verse, "Inside the midnight, you've been slithering" evokes imagery of something or someone moving stealthily in darkness, like a snake or sinister presence. "Midnight" symbolizes fear, the unknown, or hidden truths, while "slithering" adds a sense of deceit or danger. The line "You form the column's deficiency" suggests that this presence creates a weakness or gap in a structure, where the "column" could represent stability or support. This deficiency alludes to something foundational being eroded. "I latch on to you, we re-pressurize" introduces a clinging to this force, possibly to regain control or balance. However, the use of "re-pressurize" feels artificial, implying that the attempt to restore equilibrium is not entirely natural or sustainable. Finally, "Infrared paradise" suggests an illusory or dystopian paradise. "Infrared" refers to something hidden or beyond the visible spectrum, symbolizing suppressed desires or emotions, while "paradise" feels like a facade, far from ideal.
[Chorus]
The chorus starts with "Upwards, feel the pressure," indicating an upward struggle met with resistance. This creates a sense of difficulty in trying to rise above something. "Abscess, heart is a hole" intensifies the emotional weight, as an abscess represents a pocket of pain or decay, and the hollow heart symbolizes emptiness or loss. The repetition of "Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat" reflects a cyclical process of destruction, change, and renewal. "Dissolve" suggests something breaking down, "displace" implies moving or shifting from that destruction, and "rejoice" introduces a fleeting moment of relief before the cycle repeats. "No pressure here, admit defeat" suggests resignation to the ongoing turmoil, where there is no longer pressure to resist, and surrender becomes the path forward. The line "No pressure here to meet your soul / Beyond the black rainbow" introduces an existential detachment, implying that the pressure to confront one's true self is gone. The "black rainbow" could symbolize a barrier or illusion that, when surpassed, leads to an unknown or deeper understanding.
[Post-Chorus]
The post-chorus revisits the word "Exit," reinforcing the theme of departure. In the second verse, "Inside the midnight you've been slithering (Slithering)" echoes the first, emphasizing the lurking, sinister nature of the subject. The repetition of "You form the column's deficiency (You're deficient)" takes on a more direct tone, as if confronting the subject for causing the instability or erosion in the speaker's life. The lines "I latch onto you, we re-pressurize / Infrared paradise" repeat, reaffirming the notion of clinging to something destructive and trying to restore balance in a false or dystopian reality. The repetition underscores the cyclical, almost inescapable nature of the struggle.
[Bridge]
The bridge heightens the sense of repetition with "Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat" being repeated multiple times. This intensifies the idea of an unending cycle of destruction and renewal, where each stage is followed by the same steps, without any lasting resolution. "No pressure here, admit defeat" is repeated again, signaling the speaker's acceptance of this unbreakable loop.
[Outro]
The outro brings the imagery of the hollow heart back with "Your heart is a hole," addressing the subject directly and calling out their emotional emptiness. The closing line "I can see for miles and miles beyond the black rainbow" suggests that the speaker has gained clarity or insight, seeing beyond the barrier or illusion of the "black rainbow." This final statement implies that, while the darkness remains, the speaker has gained a sense of understanding or perspective, whether it leads to hope or closure.
Spiritbox Black Rainbow Lyrics
[Intro]
Exit
[Verse 1]
Inside the midnight, you've been slithering
You form the column's deficiency
I latch on to you, we re-pressurize
Infrared paradise
[Chorus]
Upwards, feel the pressure
Abscess, heart is a hole
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
No pressure here, admit defeat
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
No pressure here to meet your soul
Beyond the black rainbow
[Post-Chorus]
Exit
[Verse 2]
Inside the midnight you've been slithering (Slithering)
You form the columns deficiency (You're deficient)
I latch onto you, we re-pressurize
Infrared paradise
[Bridge]
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
Dissolve, displace, rejoice, repeat
No pressure here, admit defeat
[Outro]
Your heart is a hole
I can see for miles and miles beyond the black rainbow
Heart is a hole
I can see for miles andmiles beyond the black rainbow
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