Iconic, groundbreaking, long-running visionary/psychedelic metal outfit TODAY IS THE DAY has completed its fourteenth official studio full-length album, Never Give In, confirming it for October 3rd release and issuing its video for the title track.

TODAY IS THE DAY closes a more than five-year gap since their acclaimed No Good To Anyone LP, which was released in early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the globe. Amid widespread praise from fans and critics around the globe, the album saw the outfit embark on a nationwide tour through over three dozen cities. New York City shut down just days after TITD’s set there, with cities around the country following each day. By the time the band hit the Southwest, the entire country was going into lockdown, and the band was forced to simply turn back and traverse the country back to the East Coast mid-tour.

Like many during the dark, early months of the pandemic, founder Steve Austin went through dismal and trying times, and after months of socio-political chaos, seclusion, and bleakness of the times, he had fallen into a slump of depression from which he knew he must emerge. He resurrected his label SuperNova Records and reclaimed the band’s entire back-catalog issued through the likes of Amphetamine Reptile Records, Relapse Records, Blackmarket Activities, Southern Lord Recordings, The End Records, and BMG, and re-released them digitally through the label’s deal with The Orchard/Sony. The label also began reissuing the entire TODAY IS THE DAY catalog on vinyl and announcing new label releases from the likes of Woorms and Gridfailure.

However, something even more retaliatory was brewing; a massive two-part concept album manifesting all the loathing, despair, despondency, and resentment for the current state of the world, which now begins to make itself known to the burning planet.

Never Give In arrives as the first chapter of a two-part concept, conceived and created as one massive body of music and then methodically orchestrated into its sister albums. These songs merge elements of many eras and lineups of the band’s wide lineage, while infusing elements never previously heard in TODAY IS THE DAY’s music, as cinematic and psychedelic motifs shroud the hard-driving metallic core of these ten immersive songs. Dismal and dystopian themes fuel the downtrodden, now antagonistic toward the powers that be, trudging through the quagmire of life in hopes of a triumphant outcome.

Never Give In was written by Steve Austin, who handles guitar, vocals, electronics, and Moog Sub37, with touring members Colin Frecknall on drums/percussion and Tom Jack on bass. Several guests are also featured on several tracks. “Psychic Wound” sees Aaron Polk performing drums, and “Secret Police” sees David Brenner (Gridfailure) supplying additional vocals and synth, and Mac Gollehon (live/session brass for David Bowie, Onyx, Blondie, Héctor Lavoe) performing trumpet and trombone. The album was recorded, mixed, mastered, and completed with artwork/art direction and videos all by Steve Austin at Austin Enterprise Recording & Mastering in Orland, Maine.

“It’s hard to put into words what this album means to me.

“Isolation, loneliness, fear, and anger with suicide calling your name. Feeling stepped on, pushed out, held down and psychologically battered. The COVID-19 lockdowns and the rise of governmental powers moving towards total control motivated me to do this diary of what I felt and experienced. At many times, I felt like I lost my identity. Frozen, unable to make a move or decision. Trying to unravel a world that had gone mad. A world that strips you of your freedom, privacy, and all the things that you deeply care about. Musically, I said fuck it; Anything goes. Tired of hearing bullshit. Tired of all the role playing. You’ve just got to be real, to be able to find yourself. To live on, when you’ve lost everything including yourself. I tried to make sense of it all through music. Trying to find the person who didn’t appear in the mirror anymore.

“Corporations ganging up together with banks and governments to take over your life, control what you do, what you say, what you think. Realizing life is a big, orchestrated show played out through the media and the internet. Endless wars, lives lost, carnage that has never been seen before. People losing loved ones, their homes, their jobs, their hope. The military and police becoming a bigger part of your life than ever. A gang of wealthy politicians making decisions for you. All of it by design to make you give up. Hatred spreading amongst the masses for each other. Stripping your will and self-control away. All of the lies, all of the deceit being injected into your mind daily, to break you down and make you give up. It takes a toll, and at times I wasn’t sure I would make it through it.

“Depression can drive you crazy. Endless days that go on forever. Each one being dragged out, seeming to last for weeks and months at a time. Without hope, you get ground down. I struggled trying to finish anything. All of my fears had short circuited my will. Loads of self-hate, regrets and trying to push forward feeling exhausted and fatigued from never-ending stress. I had to do something to find a way out of the madness I was going through. I had to fight back. To gain self-control. To find who I am and the man I always wanted to be. I wanted to use every facet of music, and not be locked into any kind of sound or genre. To create a new style of music. A music that represented all of the pain and suffering that the world bleeds.

“Never Give In is part one of a two-part sonic story. It’s a concept album in the sense that there is a beginning without an end. A warning of what can happen, did happen, and what could be your future. An awakening that we have all been lied to for years. Trusted higher powers that are corrupt and while we were trusting them, they were spying and manipulating every move we make. I’m very proud of the beginning of this journey with the first chapter, Never Give In. It’s a way of life and one that is necessary in these dystopian and dark days we live in. I can’t give in; I can’t give up. As long as I have love in my heart, I’m your worst enemy.” – Steve Austin