Epic album. Lunacy, Seer returns, A piece of the sky are brilliant. Gruelling to get through it. Gira scares me,man.

UPDATE**
the album has grown on me over time and I can now say that I love this album. Its 1 of the 4 records that i own from 2012 and I believe this album deserves at least the no 3 slot. seriously tell me how this is worse than channel orange or blunderbuss.

In the future filmakers who make war movies are totally going to use these songs for their soundtracks. Haunting, rough, and downright scary, this is definitely the best art rock album to emerge from 2012.

This album is so perfect, i love how raw and unedited it feels. One of my favorite Swans albums.

I don't "get" it, but somehow it sounds great.

I'm not totally sure about this one.. I listened to the full album from start to finish three times now, which I guess means something, considering it's like 2 hours long. There are moments of pure beauty here. A Piece of the Sky is one of those. I get what YIS is trying to say about its awkward structure, but it actually stopped bothering me after a couple of listens (and I listened to that song/piece alone far more times than anything else). Even the droney first half doesn't bother me, and I'm usually not a fan of stuff like that. In general I think the second half is stronger and features some great, post-rock, atmospheric climaxes.

But it doesn't work as well on some other tracks. Take the title track. That is a mammoth track in length, and while a lot happens in those 30+ minutes, I feel it doesn't quite do for me what some other similar tracks could. Personally, it reminds me of GYBE's Mladic, which is a shorter song, yet manages to accomplish (to my ears at least) more in that time. The Seer (song) had some "almost" Mladic-like moments.. But not quite...

One thing I hated about this record was how seriously they seem to take themselves. With those chants or whatever not helping the situation either. Basically I can't immerse myself into this stuff as much as I would have to, to really be blown away by those soundscapes.

Bottom line, it's certainly an impressive piece of music, and I def understand some people's fascination with it, but for me.... That fascination does come only in sparse moments, of which A Piece of the Sky was my favourite.

Its just too long for my taste. Ive tried listening to albums like this before and they just dont seem to work for me. however i find a lot of moments that i like on this.

I'm not sure I enjoy listening to this album, but I think that's why it's so good.

drone is awesome

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