Album Review: Tripsitter - The Other Side Of Sadness

In his 2009 book, The Other Side Of Sadness: What The New Science Of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After A Loss, George Bonanno – professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University – explores the idea that we have a “natural resilience” when faced with the trauma of losing a loved one. Indeed, in the notes which accompany their conceptual album of the same name, dark hardcore quartet Tripsitter say, “we have to see hell before we are able to get up again”, drawing on their own experiences of depression to inform their work. As such, their debut is punctuated by explosive anger and glimpses of light in their pitch-black riffs.

Take The Dreamer, which has one foot firmly in shoegaze and the other in raging hardcore, thanks largely to frontman Meindl Taxer’s cathartic roar. It makes for an impressive album – recorded live in an Austrian cabin, no less – with a wealth of both emotion and glacial, heart-wrenching riffs.

Verdict: KKKK