STEVE AUSTIN: Decibel Magazine Features Marked Cards And Loaded Dice, The Debut LP From Today Is The Day Frontman’s Outlaw Country Band, Out This Friday On SuperNova Records

photo by Kayla Grindle

STEVE AUSTIN, founder of long-running visionary metal outfit Today Is The Day, prepares to release Marked Cards And Loaded Dice – the debut LP from his classic outlaw country/bluegrass act – this Friday on his own SuperNova Records. Today, Decibel Magazine is hosting the album for an exclusive advance listen, alongside a short interview about the album.

Marked Cards And Loaded Dice was fully engineered, recorded, mixed, and mastered by AUSTIN, the songs recorded entirely on 1960s-1970s vintage analog gear – including Neve preamps, Neumann tube mics, and Abbey Road TG console equipment used on The Beatles and Pink Floyd – sounding as rich and real as the golden era of outlaw country. Rippin’ D-28 and D-18 guitar work drives intense rhythms and down-home solos. With STEVE AUSTIN handling guitar, bass, and vocals, and Colin Frecknall on drums, legendary pedal steel master Dana Flood (Hall Of Fame sideman for Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and George Jones) and fiery fiddle virtuoso Ryu Bennett add soaring, emotional depth.

This is outlaw country the way it was meant to sound: real, raw, and unforgettable.

“Oh man, I couldn’t be happier about Marked Cards And Loaded Dice coming out,” AUSTIN states. “I love playing these songs and can’t wait for everybody to experience the album.”

Decibel’s interview on the album reads in part, “The eleven-track album is stripped back and raw, following closely in the tradition of Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. It has a sense of real authenticity, blending catchiness (‘Long Way To Hell’) with ballads (‘The Rain Keeps Comin’ Down,’ ‘I Won’t Make It Last’) and occasional bursts of upbeat chicken pickin’.”

**Listen to STEVE AUSTIN’s Marked Cards And Loaded Dice in its entirety first courtesy of Decibel Magazine RIGHT HERE.**

Watch the videos for “So Far Gone,” “Henry,” and “Crazy Dreams” are all playing HERE.

Marked Cards And Loaded Dice drops worldwide on SuperNova Records this Friday, May 1st. Preorders are live at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

Tour dates, additional videos from the album, and more are to be expected shortly, with extensive touring throughout 2026 and 2027 being strategized.

STEVE AUSTIN is a rising force in traditional outlaw country music – an acclaimed songwriter, fiery guitarist, and magnetic performer whose journey from metal legend to heartfelt country storyteller has been nothing short of legendary. Born and raised on a horse farm in Lebanon, Tennessee, with deep family roots in the Appalachian hills of Chestnut Mound, he grew up surrounded by the raw sounds of Hank Williams Sr., Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, David Allan Coe, Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, and Neil Young. He picked up the guitar at age ten and spent countless hours trading old-time country songs with his father, Tillman Austin – a honky-tonk musician whose words and melodies would later light the spark for Steve’s return to his first love.

For over three decades, AUSTIN has been a professional recording and touring artist. As singer and guitarist for the groundbreaking heavy metal band Today Is The Day since 1993, he’s released fourteen albums, played over a thousand shows worldwide, earned induction into the Decibel Hall Of Fame, and produced landmark records including Lamb Of God’s New American Gospel and Converge’s When Forever Comes Crashing. His 1999 album In the Eyes Of God featured members of Mastodon, and his life story is captured in the acclaimed documentary The Man Who Loves To Hurt Himself. He’s shared stages with Slayer, Lamb Of God, and Motörhead, and his work has been featured in Mix Magazine and multiple documentaries. Yet the pull of classic country never left. Inspired by his father’s songs, AUSTIN headed to the cold, icy winters of Orland, Maine (his current home) and poured three decades of life, loss, love, and hard-won hope into his debut full-length country album, Marked Cards And Loaded Dice.

STEVE AUSTIN’s live shows are pure electricity—honest, urgent, and dangerously alive. Blending tracks from Marked Cards And Loaded Dice with raw covers of Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, David Allan Coe, and Bob Dylan, he delivers traditional country with a rocking edge that cuts straight to the soul. Fans leave feeling seen, heard, and part of something real. A true survivalist and outdoorsman who loves deer hunting, fishing, four-wheeling, and wrenching on trucks, STEVE AUSTIN brings the same no-compromise authenticity to the stage that he’s always lived by.