02/21/26

Bugs Death March

I've listened to Today is the Day for over two years at this point. I don't know if they've inspired me to do good or bad things with my life. Yet here they are still: the psychedelic version of the noisecore idea. There are probably other bands that fulfill this concept, but I haven't heard of them. But I have heard of Today is the Day.

At its best, the brutality is on the level of Cop-era Swans. That's for the lyricism especially. Like a lot of nihilistic noise rock, humanity's disintegration is crucial. Today is the Day so often narrate the stripping away of the formulated individual. It ends at the point where all that's left is primal reasoning, erasing or being erased. That includes doing so onto oneself: so often what is the point.

Nothing is earnestly beautiful here. Every melodic package is pressed against a bitter profanity, urgent and pathetic. "Kai Piranha" goes: "Kill the children / And burn their souls / Strip them naked / Shoot to kill / I'm not for sale / I'm just real." The provocation is half-sung, guitars spiraling like a screw-gun to the body; bloodshot eyes stare at us from the electronic noises. This is the beginning of one of the most sobering records I've experienced, their self-titled LP. Little is off limits, and the creakiness and banality of the voice is not a detractor. It is the point in of itself. "I have no place in the outside world," he says; "Everyone is against you," he says. Like first seeing a gash on your face, the feeling is essentially intimate.

This music is angry, pressed hard into the nervous system so it fires off everywhere. The expression so often found is one indifferent to integrity, creative and ideological. Songs were not written for any apparent moral good. If anything, songs were not written, but strangled out of overgrown frustrations, catatonic and unreciprocated. The words come out stilted and of honest pain, borne out like a spinal headache. The words come out knowingly: in a way not sexy, scarcely, and vainly poetic.

In the sphere of avant-garde/alternative/post-metal of the 1990s, Today is the Day is like the forgotten step-sibling, I find, not as acclaimed as Neurosis or Deadguy even if they were doing similar stuff at the same time. And with that in mind, they do share alike innovations: tricky hardcore riffs, tribal aesthetics (minus Deadguy), and an existential guy shouting. Now that I think about it, that might make for a fun listening party: Today is the Day, Fixation on a Co-Worker, and Through Silver in Blood all in one sitting. Notice how all these records came out in ‘95 and ‘96.

Admittedly, though, it’d probably be something besides fun. I don’t really have words for what that is other than the knowing that you've probably felt the same. I mean, there’s kind of a vibe we’re working with here on this website, and it’s not too dissimilar from whatever the hell Today is the Day is - among the mess of other terrible noise bands I push. And seeing as you’ve made it this deep into the website, I’m willing to bet you’re similarly inclined. So even if it’s not fun, we’re into that.

Lastly, consider adding Obscura by Gorguts to your listening party. Your mental punishment might be enriched.