Today is the Day’s Steve Austin is one slightly weird and twisted fellow. His band has been around since the early 90s and their noise rock mixed with metal and vague King Crimson style prog influences has led to some truly visceral extreme music. I didn’t even know that the band was still around but chanced upon Axis of Eden a  couple of months ago and excitement knew no bounds.

Axis of Eden sees Today is the Day move away from the all out attack and aggression of the previous album Kiss The Pig and into a more experimental mode. While earlier albums suffered from a certain sameness where every song was designed to be as aggressive as possible, Axis of Eden has songs that vary in pace and style. The Jesus Lizard and later Black Flag continue to be a big influence on Austin with the noise rock structures of his early work coming to the fore on this album. At the same time, there’s a lot of hardcore and extreme metal influences with the drummer belting out blast beats by the dozen and some chaotic black and death metal riffing styles.

From the slow, calm on the surface approach of If You Want Peace Prepare For War to the all out assault on the senses that is Black Steyr Aug, this album works superbly. It’s aggressive as anything else you’ll hear and at the same time the songs are full of dynamics with plenty of variety. The only downside is that Austin continues to rely very heavily on vocal processors and his vocal style is a bit of an acquired taste. Apart from this though, Axis of Eden is as powerful and pissed off a statement as any that the band has recorded so far.

I suppose that this album is preaching to the converted at some level, because if you’ve never liked this band, then Axis of Eden won’t change your mind. But if Temple of the Morning Star and In The Eyes Of God rocked your boat, then you’ll completely love Axis of Eden, because this album is actually just as good as those two, if not better.

Label - AmRep
Year of Release - 2007