Review: Today is the Day – Animal Mother

Today is the Day

Animal Mother

Southern Lord

Street: 10.14.14

Today is the Day = Converge + Neurosis + Pig Destroyer

Twenty years on and Today is the Day are still the gold standard for unhinged, mind-warpingly heavy music. The most remarkable thing about Animal Mother is an instant familiarity with the music—doom, hardcore, sludge, noise and even acoustic melodic touches find their way into the superbly produced album. Although it adheres to no specific heavy music creed, it speaks the same language as all of them, making it easy to immediately become engrossed. Steve Austen’s vocals, with their screeching layers of distortion, are still as wild as ever and an impeccable vehicle for his brutally honest lyrics. Some aggressive music functions primarily as a physical outlet, meant to encourage an outburst of violence. Today is the Day’s aggression is of the psychic variety—an excision of demons—it’s riveting. If your relationship with Today is the Day fell off around Sadness Prevails, you’d do well to make amends. –Peter Fryer