Today Is The Day/-16-

Two of the underground's most nihilistic, misanthropic and abrasive units team up for a punishing five-song split EP of self-abuse as therapy that foreshadows each act's upcoming full-length. -16- offers three tracks ("Balloon Knot," "Ageing Disgracefully" and "You're Not My Real Dad") that bear witness to their return to the groove-laden oppression of their Dropout-era material. Hurtling slow sludge that clamours against its own funeral dirge, not as distorted or as hectic as their Blaze of Incompetence full-length but infinitely more powerful, -16- have rediscovered the emotional turmoil that placed them amongst hatecore's elite (Buzzov*en, Eyehategod), even if such recognition has inexplicably eluded them. Grappling with the defection of his most technically proficient rhythm section ever, which then went and formed Mastodon, the Reverend Steve Austin (the criminally insane mastermind behind Today Is The Day) offers a two-song act of defiance against those who thought he peaked with In The Eyes Of God. "Invincible" is an apocalyptic tour of force, running through the speed and technical mayhem unleashed with In The Eyes Of God before settling into a morose, keyboard and vocal-driven dirge, littered with the emotional upheavals so prevalent on Today Is The Day's earlier offerings. Its companion, "Breadwinner," is a brief, meandering declaration of illicit substances that is as short and abrupt as "Invincible" is expansive. While both Today Is The Day and -16- have been written off by many, Zodiac Dreaming is a stirring refusal to relent.