‘Axis
of Eden’ is the eighth full length release by Steve Austin
& co. on Austin’s own Supernova label. ‘Today Is
The Day’ (TITD) is a particularly influential avant-metal
band and have occupied the outer-limits of heavy music for the last
15 years with their nasty brew of raw HxC, pummelling noisecore,
white noise, doomcore, art-rock and psychedelica.
Contrary to the ‘call to arms’ cover work of ‘Axis
of Eden’, the album is one of the least-heavy, most-varied
and most-emotional albums TITD have created. Don’t get me
wrong, listeners are thrown head-first into a hellish pit of snarled
growls, paranoia inducing riffage and psychedelic sound effects,
however, these elements don’t prevail as a constant barrage.
Instead, with tracks like ‘Free At Last’ and ‘Circus
Maximus’, the listener is treated to drugged out, slow crooning
numbers. Elsewhere, softer vocals and slower doom-rock soundscapes
exist as parts of the track. ‘If You Want Peace Prepare for
War’ is an excellent example which starts off with a intense
Teen Cthulhu blackmetalcore-esque war-cry and then drifts off into
an cerebral and psychedelic Eastern soundscape complete with subtle
Indian percussion. ‘No Lung Baby’ is another such track
which combines unnervingly fragile vocals a la Jacob Bannon (circa
early Converge) over a bed of mystic and muted doomcore-noisecore
fusion. Undoubtedly a future live classic.
The album is of course littered with intense gutter-metal. TITD
serve up high-quality death-stompers such as ‘Broken Promises
and Dead Dreams’ which closes with an amazing propulsive and
growing battle-riff complete with Trojan death cry’s which
creates a Knut meets Teen Cthulhu (at their ugliest) soundscape.
The rumbling barrage of collapsing riffage and nasal shrieks of
‘Black Steyr Aug’ is straight from the ‘In The
Eyes of God’ period whilst ‘Total Resistance’
initiates with a whirlwind of molten-metal which is interspersed
with slower death-doom to create a real sense of energy. The title
track starts softly yet moves into sub-sonic throat growls and psychedelic
death-metal which sounds like Cannibal Corpse played in slow motion
whilst the equaliser controls are incorrectly set. The albums closes
on ‘Desolation’ which is an psyched-out experimentation
of skittering drum work, tempo control and malformed phaser effects
. The end result is sounds like Radiohead (circa Kid A) on bad drugs.
In terms of production, TITD again sound like they spontaneously
burst into song in the basement whilst the recording equipment was
left recording upstairs. This creates an aura of authenticity via
the mutant lo-fidelity sonic sludge that resonates from the speaker.
Unfortunately, this effect can also serve to mute proceedings for
some listeners, which can render some of the epic parts, impotent.
Not for me however, I think the lo-fi production values accentuate
the message.
Overall, TITD provide a varied sonic palette of intense mutant-sludge
that still shows they are a force to be reckoned within the extreme-music
landscape. It is clear that they are not concerned with ‘fasion’,
‘scenesters’ or any of the trend-fcuking nonsense. They
always have played what they want, how they want, and ‘Axis
of Eden’ is an extension of these beliefs.
For fans of: Ugly intense music i.e. Knut, Oxbow, Teen Cthulhu,
Converge
Click
here to buy Axis
of Eden
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