Today Is the Day - Sadness Will Prevail (30 tracks) +Album Reviews

Disturbing (not Disturbed)

Phil Avetxori | 10/10/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although their name was familiar, I'd never gotten around to actually listening to Today is the Day until I heard this album. With the exception of extreme black/death/grind, I don't listen to much metal these days, but there was a mild buzz in experimental/noise music circles about "Sadness Will Prevail", so I thought I'd give it a listen. I popped in disc "X", and was immediately assaulted by piercing screams and caustic guitar slashing: this was a good sign. Today is the Day have an eclectic sound, and stylistic affinities include Jesus Lizard/Big Black-style noise rock, the swamp doom-punk of Eyehategod, the tribal crust of Neurosis, and the more sinister moments of King Crimson. Although I haven't heard the band's other albums, this is apparently more "experimental" than their earlier music. Samples, washes of digital noise, and unorthodox instrumental embelishments add some much needed variety to the harrowing churn of the album's nearly 2 1/2 hour length. Although apparently irritating to some of the faithful, the samples, horns, piano, and strings are, for the most part, well-integrated into the overall sound. Along with Michael Gira, and his excellent new Angel's of Light cd, Steve Austin get's the Brian Wilson's Evil Twin Award for disturbingly effective studiocraft. I disagree with the people who believe that the production's too lo-fi. Austin ingeneously juxtaposes elements of varying fidelity, and the less than pristine sound is entirely appropriate. It's certainly more successful in creating an atmoshphere of urban decay and suburban depravity than that of any Nu-metal band. Like many other Metal bands with ambitions that are orchestral in scope (most notably, Opeth), Today is the Day sometimes venture into the sort of stop-start territory where constantly changing dynamics give some sections a fragmented, medley-like feel that borders on arbitrariness. Some of the piano driven segments are a bit melodramatically simplistic, as well. Still, with its truly frightening atmosphere, and some of the most pleasingly painful guitar since early Fudge Tunnel, "Sadness Will Prevail" is the best kind of wrist-slasher."

For the dark soul in all of us

Wheelchair Assassin | The Great Concavity | 04/17/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I bought "Sadness Will Prevail" having never heard even one second of Today Is The Day's music. But their reputation was enough for me to check them out, and I'm sure glad I did. At two discs and more than 145 oppressive minutes, "Sadness Will Prevail" is a magnum opus of darkness and depression. With its barrages of piercing instrumentation and the manic vocal stylings of Steve Austin, "Sadness Will Prevail" is everything that nu-metal pretends to be. Picture a person jumping up and down on an ant, and you'll get a rough idea of just what listening to this album can do to your psyche. It's actually somewhat of a musical endurance test; if you can get through this album you can handle just about anything. I really feel a bit drained after listening to it. And while "Sadness Will Prevail" can often be depressing, it's rich with variety and experimentation as well. Technical metal, ambient, grind, and noise are all thrown into a blender by Austin and co., and the musicianship is never less than impressive (although the new drummer, while good, is no Brann Dailor). The 30 tracks on here run the musical and emotional gamut: one minute I'm hiding under my bed from a full-on onslaught of churning riffs and harsh shrieks, the next I'm having my frayed nerves calmed by a haunting atmospheric passage. Song structures are typically arbitrary, with many careening from one sound to another with little or no effort to establish a connection. An array of instruments are used on this album, not to mention all the bizarre things Austin does with his voice. Even the snatches of dialogue included here are ominous. If I had to single out one song to recommend, it would definitely be "Never Answer the Phone," a 23-minute epic with no vocals. It's nothing but twisted, foreboding music with some dialogue interspersed to enhance the atmosphere. The last two minutes or so, which I believe are from the movie "Rosemary's Baby," involve a man and woman yelling "Hail Satan" a bunch of times, and it's pretty creepy. If you like your music disturbing, this song is definitely for you. So, for that matter, is the album as a whole. I recommend "Sadness Will Prevail" especially to fans of cutting-edge heavy bands like Candiria, Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad, Nile, and the Dillinger Escape Plan."

Austin does it again!

Emilio J. | Mexico City. | 09/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sadness Will Prevail is everything you would expect from Today is the Day; Dark, Twisted, Perverted, Psycotic and Beautiful Music. This band defies genres and lurks beyond all posible descriptions. This double CD is their most epic and dymamic work to date, filled with tempo changes and weird noise experiments mixed with rocking riffs and desperate screams. It will take you a while to get into this tar pit of art metal, but once you do, you'll never get out. Along with NEUROSIS and THE MELVINS, TITD is one of the most honest and crushing bands in the world and this record makes it clear."

Cultic Masterpiece

Zachary A. Hanson | Tallahassee, FL United States | 08/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"4.5 stars

I love everything about this album, EXCEPT for the lo-fi production values. I wonder if Steve Austin keeps things lo-fi to keep some of their original indie cred to them, keeping them from being orthodox members of the extreme metal crowd.

Really, he wouldn't have to worry. I remember seeing Austin as a wee lad opening for I don't remember who at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis. It wasn't near as Metal, but it was all the excruciating anguish and dissonance that you hear on _Sadness Will Prevail_. Fast forward fifteen years and I am a full-blown Mastodon fanatic and I find out that drummer extraordinaire Brann Dailor honed his chops with Austin. And then I work my way to this album--HOLY OF UNHOLIES!!! These guys are all over the place. Crimsonesque violins, a song that features endless bell tree and a harp being BEATEN underneath Austin's visceral imprecations ("Butterflies"--nothing like it), acoustic laments on acid, oh yeah and some of the extremest metal/hardcore you'll ever hear. These guys are everywhere. I'm shocked that Austin has managed to manifest such a formidable output when he nurses such a damaged psyche.

And I'm only on disc X of this tour de force. Nothing can prepare you for what occurs on the second disc, disc Y. The experimental tag gets put on way too many things in the rock world (Radiohead rarely experiments--they compose; ditto Sepultura, Deerhoof, and so forth). Disc Y, on the other hand, is like listening to a chemist let loose in a laboratory with every substance known to humankind. And the results are just as scary with Austin seeing what he comes up with. The interminable "Never Answer the Phone" is especially freaky, disconcerting, and fascinating. Just buy this CD, set aside three hours (two-and-a-half to listen and a half hour to recover), and tell me what album you have ever heard with quite this scope and reach.

While this won't be making Rolling Stone's Top 100 Albums of All Time any time soon, it certainly stands on its own in the history of rock. Austin makes gold out of s**t over and over here and he has a formidable cast to back him up, especially Marshall Killpatric on drums (best drumming on "Butterflies"). The only reason a person wouldn't like this is because they want their music comfortable and safe. Otherwise, if one pays attention and gets over the lo-fi production values, there is no experience like this out there."

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