Today is the Day are as important as Neurosis in the development of avant-garde metal in the 1990s. After all, “noise metal” is a term we created to describe their abrasive sound that’s impossible to categorise. Deadguy and Dillinger Escape Plan cite them as a pioneering influence on their music, and two members of Mastodon were once recording musicians in Steve Austin’s revolving cast of noiseniks. With albums like 1997’s Temple of the Moring Star and 1999’s In the Eyes of God to their name, Today is the Day should need no introduction. Yet album number twelve is the first in five years, and it’s a great opportunity for the uninitiated to discover a new favourite band. Never Give In is an emotional ride that’ll leave you with shaky hands and a twitch in your eye.
Opener, ‘Divide and Conquer’, starts as a paradox. A macho chug riff and a deadpan spoken voice combine like salt and water. On first analysis, Steve Austin approaches the microphone in the range of Snake from Voivod with a dash of the John Malkovich. Listen how the words linger in your head as repeat mantras you’d rather not say out loud with other people listening. The voyeuristic lyrics are obsessive and unsettling, yet you wonder if the protagonist will put a gun to his head and end it all. Only at the chorus do we get a ringing slash of chords that catch the higher strings like fingers trapped in a windowsill. “Look what you’ve done to me / You’re my religion,” says the despondent voice. In the 1990s, this song would’ve throbbed with off meter time changes and dissonant intervals. Now, Austin has mellowed, but his music is just as anguished. Observe how a crying voice saunters in the background like a man who realises that penance will bring him no salvation from an apathetic God.
Compared to 1994’s Willpower, much of this record is a million miles away from the extreme noise rock that made Today is the Day a force in the underground. Yet you could argue the new wave synth rock of ‘I Got Nothin’’ is just as dark as anything from the first three Swans albums. Here, Austin pierces his demoralised intonations with a layer of screaming as the arpeggiated one-note synth loops around the words. When was the last time you heard a Today is the Day record with a simple two-beat drum at its heart? Hark how the distorted guitars stalk the spaces in this song like assassins hiding in the shadows.
“You live your life in chains / You gave your life away,” repeats Austin in the string-skipping discordance of ‘Intentional Psychological Warfare’. It’s a pleasure to watch it transform from a disorientating noise rock affair into an art-punk effort worthy of The Pixies. The shivering voice feels like the real confession that a Catholic could never give to a priest. You’ll envision Axl Rose teaming up with the manic-depressive beauty of Julie Christmas when the drums switch to half-timing at 04:30. Austin digs into his blues register to declare, “I can’t feel it any longer / I can’t feel it when it rains.”
This record is a close to flawless as you’ll find in 2025. The title-track is vivid enough for you to imagine wiping the dust from your eyes and stroking your guitar as you listen to the logic of the landscape around you. Here, Austin adopts a voice like J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., but with the fragility of a man who learned how to erase all things sentimental from his mind. If this is alternative rock, it’s a harrowing interpretation that’ll make you tear the hair from your head with calloused fingers. The Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter could benefit from a listen to this as she plans her next album for Lingua Ignota’s fanbase.
Today is the Day are seldom at the beginning of the conversation about avant-garde metal, but they’re never left out either. They ought to be higher in the family tree. Gridfailure mastermind, Dave Brenner, takes the microphone for ‘Secret Police’ as avant-garde horn player, Mac Gollehon, furnishes the bass upstrokes with his brass coatings. Observe how Austin uses the stomp of the distortion pedal to create a contrast in the chorus. Nobody sounds like this, yet fans of the first three records will appreciate the rolling bass shapes and clashing guitar notes of ‘Psychic Wound’ as a paranoia reminiscent of vintage Rollins Band seeps through the speakers. You’ll wonder if it ended abruptly at 01:54 on the ominous reverberation of a power chord until the tom drums bring it back to life. The effect is unforgettable as Austin focuses on the mantra, “I’m losing what’s left of me / I’m digging my hole,’ like a lobotomised ex-marine repeating his sergeant’s dehumanising commands for self-discipline.
The only thing missing from ‘The Choice Is Yours’ is a duet with Emma Ruth Rundle. “Can’t you see I’m broken-hearted? / Can’t you see I live in fear?” pleads the Today is the Day frontman as if conversing with his compassionate alter-ego. In complete contrast, ‘Pain and Frustration’ finds a modicum of hope in the piano-driven groove until you establish that the lyrics are darker than the fantasies of a peeping tom harbouring murderous desires for his friend’s wife. The subject matter of this and many of the songs on this LP would make for an interesting collection of short stories. “Secret fantasy / You’re not dreaming,” screams Austin in the chorus as if hoping to turn a groan into a melody. This makes it even more unnerving.
We can only hope the author of these songs is not falling apart through glimpsing into the psyche of the damaged people that fascinate him so much. Closing track, ‘The Cleansing’, needs just a stitching of slow arpeggios and a din of ghost-noted snares for the words to ache in the breeze. It’ll be a worthy effort that beats this record to the album of the year accolade.
Verdict
Release Date: 03/10/2025
Record Label: SuperNova Records
Standout track: Divide and Conquer; Secret Police; Pain and Frustration
Suggested Further Listening: Swans – Children of God (1987), Julie Christmas – Ridiculous and Full of Blood (2024), lowheaven – Ritual Decay (2025)