September 2004 October 2004 November 2004
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Today is the Day-Kiss the Pig
Relapse Records, 2004
By Joe Younglove
Today is the Day is not interested in wasting time on their latest album, Kiss the Pig. A gun cocks and the music is off to the races.
Lead singer Steve Austin screams “Up above the world so high like a rocket in the sky” as if it’s either a release of agony, a reaction to agony, or both. Either way, it’s far more convincing than Jonathan Davis’s attempt at nursery-rhyme-metal on Korn’s “Shoots and Ladders.”
Austin assaults his lungs with demonic screech vocals, racing next to low-end, guttural background vocals from bassist, Chris Debari. The gunshots at the end of the first track, “Why They Hate Us,” signify the song’s personification as a gun-toting madman.
Kiss the Pig was recorded to facilitate high volume. You can turn this mother up farther than traditionally-volumized (?) albums. Other albums recorded like this include Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins and Adrenaline by Deftones. It’s difficult to hear the drums, but that’s probably because comprehending the beats takes many listens. It could easily take at least 100 spins before the drums’ complexity is fully appreciated. The funny thing is that every drum track on the album was written in less than five days, according to drummer Mike Rosswog.
When getting to know Kiss the Pig, it’s easy to notice how the vocals and the guitar do not fall behind each other. They both shred everything in their path, like Ax and Slash from former WWF tag team champions, Demolition, on methamphetamines.
Clearly, the band’s goal is to reflect the sound of a cattle grinder, or to be less specific, a factory machine that slices and dices and cans and destroys quickly. To maximize profits, most American slaughterhouses process as much meat as they can as fast as possible. By doing that, the slaughterhouses make mistakes and people get injured. For instance, if this music were a “spleen splitter,” it would injure a lot of workers, because it’s an unfamiliar machine that would frighten many. That is where the contradiction lies, because Kiss the Pig is not ugly music. It is more than 36 minutes of beautiful combat.
Combat is a major theme of the album. Open the jewel case and you’re staring down gun barrels. It’s a reminder of America everyday; putting people in danger. The danger may not always be physical; it’s more of a brainwashing nature, because thanks to the media and the government we have airwaves strewn with nonsense.
Kiss the Pig’s preeminent theme is money. As the story goes, Austin watched his child playing with a piggy bank one day, doing what most of us did as children; counting and recounting our coinage, and that occasional dollar. We felt proud knowing how much money we had. We’d look at that piggy bank, or that porcelain football, perhaps an E.T. bank, and felt pride claiming ownership of the prestigious resource. Today is the Day says America is full of ignorant imbeciles, jacking off our guns and stuffing filthy money in each other’s faces. Austin screams that everything makes him puke and want to die. Many children feel sad when there are only a few coins in the piggy bank. When the pig is full they feel full.
In Resound Magazine Issue 14.0, Austin says, “All of us, from the day we are born are taught to love and worship money, even though money is the ruin of mankind.”
On the album’s last track, “Birthright,” Austin guarantees, “You’ll regret your birth,” as if it’s the last words he’ll ever utter. But they are not his final words, because the song has more lyrics afterwards. The speed metal riffs and double bass become a fixture of Birthright’s background.
The length of Kiss the Pig may be relatively short, but it argues that shortness may be the result of efficient songwriting. Today is the Day put thick anger into every second, like a salvage yard compactor crushing monstrous riffs, possessed vocals, and 3 million drum beats into a metal cube of doom. However, the album is not a cube; it is an AK-47 pointed at each temple, clocked and spraying rapid-fire ammo in every crevice, figuratively-speaking.
Today is the Day wants America to take a hint and quit being so selfish and hollow. After a “repeat after me” oath, a child’s voice says, “Let’s have a great day!” and some of the most gorgeous picking floats into the eardrums, sounding completely perfect alongside the treacherous sonic warfare of the preceding half-hour.