Willpower

Nothing if not emotionally devastating, Willpower's warmth and accessible breadth proved the perfect complement to Supernova's calculated coldness and musical mysticism. Exploring distrust, loyalty, death, passion, memory, and excess in the span of nine songs, this album certainly runs the emotional gamut. Changes in mood are echoed by sea changes in volume and dynamics, Austin's high-pitched scream yielding to a breathy, near-silent spoken whisper in the space of a few measures. Though its time signatures are still tricky in a mathematical way, Willpower's greatest strength is its appeal to the human heart through whatever means necessary. Opening with a particularly telling audio sample, Today Is the Day's sophomore effort is the sound of man's struggle to keep it together despite all odds. This album is as beautiful and striking as it is painful and charged with darkness. [Willpower was also released with two bonus tracks.]