TRIPSWITCH
Deleterious - Demo EP
plus additional
New Two-track Demo - Review
(Demo CD's)

...Raw vocals and tuneless melody are combined, the rawness of the screams and shouts are intense, the melody most peculiarly manic sounding with this becoming quite characteristic of their sound...
The first time I heard this band was on TotalRock Radio and instantly made a mental note - must check these guys out.  It was with eerie occurrence that I then happened across their drummer - Pete - in the TotalRock chatroom and after some conversation he kindly offered me their demo's for review.

The band released their debut self funded, self recorded demo EP called Deleterious in the early part of 2001.  However, a few months later, during May they won the coveted TotalRock sponsored Tattoo Festival Battle of the Band competition which gave them the opportunity to do some more recording, this time with Andy Sneap on production duties.   And so it was that they created a unnamed second demo featuring two further tracks.

Track Listing:

Deleterious EP
01.
Straighthead
02.
1 Hit Infliction
03.
Tripped
04.
Sinus
05. Locked
06. Face

New Demo
01.
Unrestrained
02. Unit
Produced by Andy Sneap

Tripswitch Demo Cover
The six tracks on the Deleterious demo amply display what Tripswitch are especially about.  Although the production is a little muddy, causing the guitars to loose some clarity, the songs do still come across loud and lucid delivering metal that is brutal in some places, rumbling in others.  There are more than suggestions of industrial beats on several occasions (not least on 1 Hit Infliction) and also with frequent interjection of electronic samples.

The demo contains some quite interesting songs, with the riffs and structures not always straight forward and often doing something unexpected.  The almost Jazz bass intro to Locked turning into a funky rhythm would be a fine example.  There is also much use of the double-bass peddle effect (in fact the sound is very drum heavy), mixed with grinding guitars and the electronica producing a brutish creation.  Raw vocals and tuneless melody are combined, the rawness of the screams and shouts are intense, the melody most peculiarly manic sounding with this becoming quite characteristic of their sound.  I really like the track Face which has metalcore overtones and a chorus that has me thinking of (the late, great and lamented) Snub.

The real surprise comes with what is unearthed on the two track "competition" demo.  This is a massive progression in the story of Tripswitch with real hints at what they are capable of producing.  This CD is of 'label release' quality with excellent production by Andy Sneap (as you would expect) and it gives us a much clearer, bigger and better sound.  Not only is the power and aggression much more threatening the vocals are much better, featuring more melody and in great tune.  At times their sound reminds me a little of both Spineshank and Occupational Hazard, but only partial flavours as this band do harvest their own identity.

Of the two tracks, Unrestrained musically explains that you must listen to this band and subtly beats your ears with metallic euphony.  Unit is just such a brutal track, a really good song, not massively original but played well and an excellent mix of aggression and quieter melody.   With this, Tripswitch are a band that are coming on in leaps and bounds, they deserve to be given a chance and thanks to TotalRock, they are starting to get noticed.  I think that the development of this band over such a short space of time says volumes as to what they could continue to do.  Ignore at your peril.

Rigsby (6th November, 2001)
Transcripts From The Downtuned

Band Website:  www.tripswitch.co.uk
Band email:  tripswitch@freenetname.co.uk