Review Summary: This album is an early glimpse of Today is the Day in the evolution of this extremely creative band. Steve Austin never seems to take the expected path and is not really like any other song writer out there. This is one band that seems to harness a slew
Steve Austin has been making music under many different line ups of Today is the Day for almost 15 years now. Even Brann and Bill now of Mastodon were in this band on "In the Eyes of God" which is a very early glimpse of how amazing a drummer Brann is. Each album has shown more emotion and creativity than most any other band that even compares to this, almost to the extent at times it makes for an uncomfortable listen.
Willpower was released in 1995 and features the original TITD line up of Steve(vocals, guitar, samples), Brad Elrod(drums), and Mike Herrell(bass). This line up of Today is the Day takes you through anything from noise, to ballads, to destruction. Shortly before the recording of this album Steve's father was killed in a car accident and this album is dedicated to him. Many of the songs start out with eerie sound bites from movies you may know. Then the songs take you on unexpected change ups and turns. The drumming is over the top as are really all the drummers ever associated with TITD. Musicianship is very strong all over.
"Willpower" the title track kicks off the album with a man and woman arguing. The woman cries out,"I look into your eyes and I know that you're lying!" Then a brutal guitar kicks in and Steve yells out"I don't know what anything means!" Right away the song grabs you and goes from mayhem to beauty. The rest of the album keeps up at this frantic unexpected rate until "Simple Touch" which is a rare chance to see Steve take on more of a ballad type of song and sing." Then "Promised Land" comes after this with more brutality and ends with a rendition of of "Amazing Grace" done on electric guitar.
The recently re-released album under Steve's self owned new label Supernova records includes a bonus track. This is one album worth picking up for anybody who enjoys music that pushes heavier music that pushes boundaries.
