Trapped Under Ice

Trapped Under Ice: Big Kiss GoodnightBig Kiss Goodnight (2011)
Reaper Records

Reviewer Rating: 4

User Rating:

Contributed by: JohnWisconsinJohnWisconsin
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Published on December 2nd 2011In 2009, a couple months before Trapped Under Ice released their breakthrough album, Secrets of the World, I saw them perform in San Francisco, Calif. as part of the 10 for $10 tour, which featured hardcore heavyweights like Bane, Poison the Well and Terror. Trapped Under Ice weren't headliners at t.

In 2009, a couple months before Trapped Under Ice released their breakthrough album, Secrets of the World, I saw them perform in San Francisco, Calif. as part of the 10 for $10 tour, which featured hardcore heavyweights like Bane, Poison the Well and Terror. Trapped Under Ice weren't headliners at this point, and were still promoting their critically lauded Stay Cold seven-inch. Most of the concertgoers weren't aware of who Trapped Under Ice were, but those who did possessed the fervor of Terror disciples. With such a small musical output and such a devout following, all indicators pointed to Trapped Under Ice's success.

Despite the unrelenting anger vocalist Justin Tripp spews on his band's newest full length, Trapped Under Ice have a lot to be happy about. In just a few years they've catapulted themselves from relative seven-inch obscurity to headlining tours. And while the band has faced a certain amount of backlash in their new found status as a household name in hardcore (whatever that means), such baseless negativity usually just points to the band's successes. In fact, Big Kiss Goodnight makes the case that Trapped Under Ice has compromised little in their development, but has only grown into more efficient officiators of anger.

One of the main differences between Big Kiss Goodnight and its predecessor is its openness to conventional song structures. Tracks like "You and I" and "Born to Die" follow a verse-chorus formula that ought to make them sound tired, even radio-friendly, but siphoned through the band's unabated energy maintain a hefty level of ferocity that will should scare away any AFI fans. Most of the songs contained on Big Kiss could be considered catchy; however, there are still heavy-hitters like "Time Waits" and "Still Cold" that sound raw and heavy enough to be extensions of tracks from Secrets of the World. Whereas Secrets of the World took a few listens to fully appreciate, the song structures on Big Kiss Goodnight make it instantly gratifying from the first listen.

Simply put, Big Kiss Goodnight is an excellent record that firmly establishes Trapped Under Ice in the upper echelon of hardcore. While I have to admit it does not sound quite as fresh as Secrets of the World did when it was released two years ago, Big Kiss Goodnight adds a focused dimension to the band that wasn't present before. Haters will continue to hate, and so will Trapped Under Ice.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

evanispunx (December 5, 2011)

Why do I always seem to use the wrong "there" on this fucking site?

evanispunx (December 5, 2011)

Stupidest band of all time. I'm one of those haters. There fans are worse than Terror bros.

mattramone (December 5, 2011)

More like Trapped Under Guys.

blanktapesemptybottles (December 3, 2011)

yeah you can see the video the kid did jump on him and knock him down from the stage to the ground, so that shit does suck and human instinct would kick in and you'd want to kick the shit out of whoever, hardcore is violent in general and I wouldn't want to be jumped on either haha

milanomosh (December 3, 2011)

There's plenty of accounts of Ian MacKaye and the old DC crew beating the fuck out of kids at shows as well as accidentally severing someone's ear off at a show with the spur of a boot. Also several stories and some video evidence of Henry Rollins throwing fists into crowds and drawing some blood. Pretty sure that asshole from Against Me even sucker punched a fan from stage (fact check me, I could be thinking of another pop punkish band). Hardcore is violent sometimes. It sucks when you get hurt but there's also a certain set of unwritten rules or at least etiquette in going to shows where there is a potential for violence and that includes giving the actual members of the band a couple inches of breathing room. With that, I end my defense of TUI.

V V V V V

xIxKilledxJesusx (December 3, 2011)

"The kid was stagediving and accidentally jumped on Trapped Under Ice's singer. The singer and one more member of the band started to beat up the kid, which resulted in a broken jaw which had to be fixed by an operation and two screws in the kids jaw. TUI's singer was calling a 1 on 1 off stage during some crew members still were beating up the kid. His motivation was stated: 'I'm not a super hero, don't jump on me!"

milanomosh (December 3, 2011)

examples of what

publichousing (December 2, 2011)

Great album. They keep getting better and better as songwriters and the production is absolutely excellent. I love the fact that they've upped the punx ("You and I", "Born To Die", "True Love") and the Crown Of Thornz influences (every track on the album). I think "Time Waits" and "Disconnect" are probably my favourite tracks on here, but the last minute or so of "Outcast" is probably the best part of the entire album. The vocals are really cool as well.

It's good to hear a metallic/"beatdown" hardcore band that doesn't simply write heavy songs just for the sake of being heavy or "tough", but actually incorporates punk rock influences into their songwriting.

slowstupidhungry (December 2, 2011)

"I'm not gonna defend these guys to the death or anything but they're waaaay more intelligent and musically original than bands you guys typically hate for being too macho (madball, terror, etc which I can understand)."

Examples?

milanomosh (December 2, 2011)

Before any more DUDE BRO LOL accusations get made let me just say: Listen to the record!
I'm not gonna defend these guys to the death or anything but they're waaaay more intelligent and musically original than bands you guys typically hate for being too macho (madball, terror, etc which I can understand).
Stay Cold was a great record. My interest has faded with every release since then but it's still cool music.

slowstupidhungry (December 2, 2011)

I am really glad the Chandler estate wouldn't let them use the actual book title. Or maybe these guys are just too slow to remember it. You know, words an' all that fag shit.

r3vengetherapy (December 2, 2011)

This reads like a promo written by a label. Bad form. You sound like a hype man instead of a fan.

Chaos_is_Goose (December 2, 2011)

Don't really like this band, but they make the best weight lifting music.

RadToTheMax (December 2, 2011)

Stay cold

MikexDude (December 2, 2011)

It's also Justice not Justin. Lolol

MikexDude (December 2, 2011)

I'm a TUI fan, but I was an AFI fan first...

sundowning10 (December 2, 2011)

Broooooooooooooo