Today is the Day – Never Give In Review

By Grymm

When we last heard from noise mastermind Steve Austin and his legendary project, Today is the Day, it was with No Good to Anyone, a partly seething, partly mournful, and all-too-sincere portrait highlighting loss, despair, and anger that also possessed an undercurrent of hope. I dug the album considerably, and still view it as an album that should have, by all intents and purposes, brought new eyes and ears towards the band’s direction. Sadly, No Good to Anyone released in early 2020, just as the world was shutting down while Austin and company were on tour for that album. This would understandably send Austin into a depressive tailspin, but one he would claw his way out of, not only by re-opening his label, SuperNova Records, and buying back his entire catalog, but also with the middle finger to adversity and depression, Never Give In.

And before I continue, I just want to toss out a major caveat to those who’ve already made up their minds about the band. Never Give In isn’t going to change your mind if you haven’t connected with Austin or his band before, or if you just flat-out fucking hate their music. Today is the Day has been and always will be operating from a place of sincerity as told through the eyes and throat of its creator without any regard to the listener. Whether it’s the two-plus-hour double album Sadness Will Prevail or the all-out assault of In the Eyes of God or Temple of the Morning Star, Austin’s unflinching vision and honesty isn’t for everyone, as it’s told using what he feels is best for his message, not what others expect from him.

Now with that out of the way, Never Give In, much like its predecessor, sees Austin and company throwing even more curveballs and moods your way, but still retaining the viciousness and transparency of their best work. Opener “Divide and Conquer” comes closest to the industrialized grindcore of their early days, and even then, Austin keeps to a croon throughout, save for the backing screams. Outside of that, though, there are some eyebrow-raisers. “Secret Police,” another grindy slab of punked-out riffage, features a horn section that reminds me of Cake in an odd-but-good way.1 Closer “The Cleansing” channels Austin’s inner Neil Young, pulling his love of Americana into a tale of a love gone wrong.

With all that said, not all of Never Give In sticks its landing. “I Got Nothin'” meanders a bit too long in one spot until the song’s final third, which is when Austin switches things up a little. “Pain and Frustration,” while featuring some phenomenal drumming by Colin Frecknall, also gets a bit stagnant as the song wears on. In fact, looking over my notes, it’s when Austin goes outside of his (and the listeners’) comfort zones that yield the best results on Never Give In. Going a bit further, I can say the same with Today is the Day’s collective output: the more daring the approach and delivery, the more visceral the result.

But at the end of the day, I’m but a witness to the storytelling of someone who’s not afraid to share his experiences in all their glories and ugliness, and the fact that we have yet more Today is the Day, given all that Austin’s had to endure, between loss, homelessness, and car crashes, is to be celebrated. It takes guts to paint an honest picture, and no one is as unflinching at it as Steve Austin. Like Chat Pile, Never Give In (and Today is the Day in general) may not be for everyone, but for those who appreciate it, they will have a lot to look forward to.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: SuperNova Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025

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Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight Review

By Dear Hollow

Couch Slut does not concern itself with the prettier things in life. While the noise rock tag may be a dead giveaway, the unconvinced need only to look at the cover of the Brooklyn five-piece’s 2014 debut My Life as a Woman (not at work) to understand. The monotone theme is a spirit likewise captured in fourth full-length You Could Do It Tonight, displaying a humanity succumbing to vice, filth, and weed – as the style’s stalwarts in Cherubs, Oxbow and Brainbombs have long done. But there’s something distinctly unhinged about Couch Slut, whether it be the jerky hardcore rhythms, dissonant squeals, and deceptively placid passages of simmering menace, the blasts of straight-up noise that feels as furious as its content, or frontwoman Megan Osztrosits’ manic shrieks, banshee howls, and ominous mutterings. Like its predecessors, You Could Do It Tonight dives headlong into darker things through the lens of urban alienation.

Unlike its predecessors, however, You Could Do It Tonight flies off the rails at nearly every turn. Compromising solidarity through its thirty-eight-minute runtime through a variety of vicious tricks, no two tracks retaining the same technique, Couch Slut dives into surreal storytelling dedicated to self-harm and suicide. Using a thick haze of noise, combined with skronky guitar work and dark bass and helmed by the manically captivating spoken stories and Osztrosits’ manic shrieks, You Could Do It Tonight is an otherworldly and absolutely menacing trip to drug-fueled insanity.

The two faces of You Could Do It Tonight, in spite of different stylistic decisions throughout, can be pictured as simmering and unhinged. “Couch Slut Lewis,” “Laughing and Crying,” and “Wilkinson’s Sword” plod carefully and deliberately with an Oxbow-esque lounging pace through a noisy backdrop with memorable guitar licks throughout erupting into dissonant squawks, while Osztrosits’ shrieks describe rape and self-harm with raw and unflinching detail. The heart on their sleeves were traded for weed on 4/20, so any compassion is left in a haze of shock and smoke. Explosions of noise envelope tracks like “Ode to Jimbo” and “Energy Crystals for Healing” in a wave somehow larger than the already mammoth riffs dominating, while devastating roars of guests Zach Ezrin of Imperial Triumphant and Doug Moore of Pyrrhon add a distinct edge to “Couch Slut Lewis” and “Downhill Racer.” Like any good noise rock, there is a constant curtain of sound draped across Couch Slut’s sound, weaponized to a vicious and unhinged degree.

While the album at large maintains that trademark insanity, there are three instances in particular that challenge the listener. “Presidential Welcome” is a grimy jazz interlude straight outta Vile Luxury, starkly decadent after the climactic and filthy predecessor. This predecessor, “The Donkey,” features Osztrosits’ spoken word with dissonant squawks and a tapestry of feedback, lyrics describing a particular nightmare in which a couple make a stop-motion horror film, and the guy nearly saws off his arm to get enough blood for their film – the antics are described with unnerving conversational casualness. Meanwhile, closer “The Weaversville School for Boys” utilizes spoken word atop pulsing beats and warbling squeals, describing an urban legend of three boys massacring the entire population of their school and vanishing, as our drugged narrator stumbles upon them laughing at the sky. It’s all unnerving.

In its themes and mood, You Could Do it Tonight can summed up by the lyrics in “Downhill Racer:” “My walls build moisture, enough to drown. I watch the water where he went down. My leg’s infected from all these scratches.” Couch Slut has no clear motive aside from absolute grime and maximum discomfort. While horror and mutilation are common themes throughout metal- and noise rock-adjacent lyrics, there’s an obscene absurdity that collides with jarring normality through these stories: as if rape, self-harm, and murder were all just everyday facets of urban life. You can trust no one. Interpreting Couch Slut and You Could Do It Tonight is a complex feat – it’s not an easy album, hardly an enjoyable one. But it is an impressively uncomfortable drug-induced listen full of captivating storytelling through effective spoken word and a vocal performance from hell, stinging instrumentals, and oily grime – like all good noise rock steeped in misery and sarcasm.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 41 Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Brutal Panda Records
Websites: couchslut.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/couchslut | instagram.com/couch.slut
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024

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