Ladies and Gentelmen : get ready for The Seer !!

[Yourselfisntsteam]

[Saposcat]

New Swans is a brutal and beautiful trip. I have listened only once, and that was a couple weeks ago. Not going to listen again till a better quality rip leaks--since the current leak is not only premaster but also transcode, thus its not being on what.cd yet (notice that the volume peaks on the first disc are at least three decibels lower than those on the second)--or till I get my preorder, whichever comes first. As the press release indicates the album is really a culmination of the past three decades of Swans and Gira in general, for instance the harsh violence of early Swans, the doom folk and sound collage and drone of mid and late, the dark country a la Angels of Light and solo Gira. Remarkably cohesive despite the emotional and sonic diversity. New are the elements Swans have entertained only in live settings, namely the hypnotic Can-esque plodding whereby compositions build up and mutate gradually. More than they have before this album, Swans songs breathe freely and last just as exhaustively long as they ought to. It's a great achievement, very likely my album of the year, and among Swans' best and most fully realized.

I have been searching for a good quality leak of the album for the past few weeks, to no avail, but I have come across some discussions such as this, and I quickly made a profile here to put in my two cents. I look forward to using this site to discover and discuss other new albums as they come out. Cheers.

[thejoj96]

[Hayden]

[Saposcat]

Thanks!

And I agree: The Great Annihilator is a great introductory Swans album. White Light from the Mouth of Infinity too. Their two most accessible albums.

Has anyone else here also heard the rare bonus disc of My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to The Sky? It is a 46 minute sound collage ("Look At Me Go") which Gira composed from sounds of the album proper. Excellent. It is the bonus disc that seems a continuation from Soundtracks for the Blind, the album they released before Gira deactivated the band, and it is from the bonus disc that The Seer continues best, as I reckon. I definitely recommend listening to it. It is quite a different beast entirely from My Father.

[cartoken]

[Puncture Repair]

Just finished it and I pretty much agree with everything Yourselfisntsteam said.

Instrumental parts dragged on for way too long, but what was there was really moody and different.

This was the first Swan's record I've heard so I wasn't sure what to expect - I wish it hadn't been quite so dark all the way through, felt really heavy, sounds like you're running through some murky woods at night, but it never ends, it just keeps going, like something is eventually going to hunt you down.

More melodies would have been nice, but the big saving grace on the album is Song For A Warrior, beautiful song, and after 64 minutes of dreary stuff it felt like a big breath of fresh air.

70/100

[Guest]

[Guest]

I listened to it. Twice. It's quite good.

[Yourselfisntsteam]