Tripsitter’s Debut Album Drenches Listeners With Captivating Melodic Hardcore

Tripsitter’s debut album The Other Side Of Sadness packs an emotional rollercoaster, rocketing the listener between extremes of pain and relief in service of an epic “final battle” all within the confines of the record. The band pack emotional conflict into every level of their work, from the music to the lyrics, and the unified presentation thereby washes over the listener with that much more inescapable intensity. The Austrian band exemplify their force through their attention to detail as much as they’re concerned with simply delivering physically powerful material, although they never get “weak” or uncertain. At the same time that they’re thrashing with heavy hitting groove, they’re weaving their way into the mind, illuminating a showdown between you and your demons.

The rising outfit do a really striking job of capturing that admittedly broad concept sonically. At the same time, the band are beautiful, yet brutal, and soaring, yet maniacal. Their music has a clear element of brooding antagonism, but it hangs out alongside the others as opposed to coming to solely define the record. Ultimately, the band are plenty intense enough that in a way, it’s up to you to decide whether their harsh elements most accurately represent you or your “demons,” and the same for the acoustic elements. There’s an almost surprisingly captivating moment towards the center of the record where the band play essentially acoustically, but the harsh, screamed vocals don’t let up. They end up with one of the most unique, and ultimately unforgettable “acoustic” tracks you might find for awhile, digging deep into the capacity of their music to scrape down the perhaps most delicate parts of our innermost workings while never letting up with their intensity, and the result feels rather freeing.

The band’s attention to concepts like getting lost in a fog of uncertainty about life gets a major boost from the sheer physicality of their music, which makes their effort quite experiential. At times, the album feels like the sonic equivalent of a perhaps familiarly structured moment of sitting in the rain staring up to the sky, wondering perhaps, what else is “out there,” but definitely pondering what’s down here. We’re rocketing around with our tension, but Tripsitter’s The Other Side Of Sadness paints the clear picture of what’s on the other side — the new soaring heights and fresh feelings and trailblazing experiences.

5/5 Stars

Listen below via Bandcamp. The full album drops April 19 via Prosthetic Records