ALBUM REVIEW: The Other Side Of Sadness – Tripsitter

The metalcore and melodic hardcore scenes are so over saturated these days. So many bands have come and gone and it is increasingly difficult for new bands to stand out. Enter TRIPSITTER with their debut album The Other Side Of Sadness. Recorded live in a cabin in Austria, the band aim to deliver the most raw experience they can, but is it enough to stand out in such an over crowded genre?

Opening track The Illusion really sets the tone well for the album. This isn’t just another watered down metalcore album, things are immediately darker and more intense. It’s a lumbering and menacing opening to the album, there aren’t any clean vocals to be heard, just vocalist Meinhard Taxer‘s throat shredding screams. Morning Sea picks up the pace and adds a little more melody to the guitar work but the track is no less savage. There’s an undeniable CONVERGE influence on TRIPSITTER that really comes through here and that certainly isn’t a bad thing.

The real standout moment on the album comes from Of Flowers. A seven minute track in the middle of the album, it starts off with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and just continues to build from there. The track manages to make the listener feel like they are trapped in that isolated Austrian cabin with TRIPSITTER. It’s such a bleak track that just nails everything the band are trying to do on this album. Hollow is another lengthy track that draws elements of shoegaze in and really shows the bands ambition to reach beyond the confines of metalcore. This is followed by Always which the closest the album gets to an uplifting moment musically.

Potentially what is most exciting about The Other Side Of Sadness is that this is their debut. If TRIPSITTER continue to show this level of ambition and passion for their craft then they could be capable of something really amazing. There’s still space for the band to grow. If you’ve listened to a CONVERGE album before then a lot of this will sound very familiar, but the band can work on carving out their own identity on future releases. The album also ends in an incredibly jarring fashion. The closing track Teach certainly isn’t a bad song but given the journey the album takes the listener on, the way this track just ends suddenly feels like a bit of an anti climax. Perhaps this was what the band were aiming for but a more memorable conclusion might have served the album better.

As far as debut albums go, The Other Side Of Sadness is a hugely impressive statement. It is such a step up from the band. It’s clear that TRIPSITTER looked to create more than just a collection of songs and instead wanted to create a complete experience for the listener. It’s an ambitious album that certainly won’t be for everyone, but for those who are tired of the watered down metalcore that floods the scene and are looking for something far more intense, TRIPSITTER might just have the album for you.

Rating: 8/10

The Other Side Of Sadness is set for release April 19th via Prosthetic Records. 

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