Today Is the Day

The shots of gun-pointing band members spread throughout the booklet of Today Is The Day’s latest act of malevolence would be so much comical macho posturing from almost any other band. But fans of Today Is The Day who know just how brutally honest, misanthropic and unwavering the reverend Steve Austin is about all things, especially "the rock,” wouldn’t be surprised if he was involved in a Waco-like compound conflagration, providing both the body count and the soundtrack. He’s already written a loose concept album about the subject, In The Eyes of God, and it’s that ferocity that Kiss The Pig attempts to outdo, while unleashing condemnation and recriminations about a country in a state of decay and his refusal to capitulate at any level to its decline. Managing to lose only half his rhythm section in between records this time (which ties a personal best), Kiss The Pig does push the aggression and intensity to the extreme, but at the cost of clarity and sometimes, quality. Strangely muffled, with the grinding drums low in the mix, the musical maelstrom confronts like a more frenetic mix of Temple of The Morning Star’s oppressive dirge and God’s relentless fury. Still, while his current rhythm section is more than adequate, Austin has yet to find players capable of matching the skill of God’s, and, until he does, TITD will always be under the shadow of that record. Still, for madmen looking for a soundtrack to their next kill-crazy rampage, the reverend once again delivers another end-time sermon for his disciples full of vitriol and bile, if not clarity.