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THE SEER

Swans

Post Rock/Math rock


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Andy Webb
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Retired Admin
5 stars Swans is a band whose breadth of mind and depth of experimentation will be remembered by music enthusiasts and experimental music fans for decades to come. Led by Michael Gira, the two decade old project has produced some of the most haunting and dense music since their inception in the early 1980s. The band has come in and out of a plethora of styles, from quiet and haunting experimental rock to full out sludge metal to post punk to gothic rock. Of course, they were originally in the "no wave" movement of the 1980s, showing their dedication to underground, experimental music. The band has had its share of squabbles, though, as any band of such an extreme genre would. Band members, fought over direction, albums showed strain between composers, and the band broke up in 1996.

In 2010, however, Gira gathered the flock once again. The reformation produced two new albums: My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky and perhaps their best offering to date: The Seer.

Where does one start on such a mammoth of an album? Running at almost two hours, the two-disc set is one of the band's longest studio albums, and contains a world of mind- ravaging material that would surely make someone go insane with too much exposure. On The Seer, we see Gira and company at their most intimate, moody, dark, and brooding selves ? The Seer is an experiment of the listeners endurance, but not because the album is overlong. The Seer makes the listener yearn for more and more Swans.

The raw emotion emitted from these tracks is intoxicating. The instrumentation of the massive array of guitars, percussion, folk instruments, strings, brass, keyboards make dense and impenetrable layers of sound laced with emotive power and musical might. The actual performances are imperfect, but this only enhances the atmosphere of this beast. From Gira's quietly strained and wavering vocals on "The Wolf" to the wall of sound that hits on the epic 32-minute title track, the album's delicately imperfect performance shows that these musicians care not for carefully crafted musical scores nor mechanically quantified note sequences ? these musicians want to tap into the emotional current that flows through the musical mind ? and they do it. Each track, no matter how short of long, contains in it a spectrum of emotion, from subtle but penetrable fury to droning insanity to blissful innocence to mysterious curiosity to so much more ? the eponymous seer can truly see it all as he travels the breadth of the darkest of human emotions to the brightest of emotive triumph.

Far from emotions, however, the musicality expressed by Gira and company on The Seer truly shows how much of a visionary Gira is. Rather than conform to any traditional musical form at all, Gira crafts a visceral exploration of the aural art of musical. Gira evokes the very rhythmic beat of society and humanity and crafts it into song. The subtle beat of a human's stride, the tempo of their mind, and the timbre of their personality can all be found within the folds and folds of the dense texture of The Seer. In some ways, it almost seems as though there is too much being put into this album. There is so much to take in, so many musical journeys to go on, and so much power put into these performances that it's incredibly difficult to sit through the album in one sitting and truly experience all that it has to offer.

Everything on this album fits. One of the most spectacular things I noticed when listening to the album in its entirety is how smooth the whole the two hours feel. For many bands, producing a massive two-disc album means bouncing around styles in a way that is fairly awkward for the listener to experience. As rough and dense as The Seer's soundscape is, however, the entire listen is continuous and "whole." Even songs like "The Seer," "A Piece of the Sky," and "Apostate," whose massive length lends them to have an entire spectrum of stylings contained withing them, contain a sense of finality when they finish with no loose ends that still maintains an air of openness that allows for the succeeding track to flow effortlessly forward (save, obviously, "Apostate," which brilliantly ends the album).

Is The Seer the next progressive rock masterpiece? Most likely not. I do not expect Yes fanatics to jump ship from Close to the Edge and start hailing The Seer as the second coming of 1973. The Seer, however, provides a rare eye into the potential of the experimental rock genre. The Seer, from a genre standpoint, transcends music. In so many ways it is simply impossible to categorize this album in any one genre. Of course, post rock is just one blanket term that can be applied to the band. While Sigúr Ros or Explosions in the Sky may provide the most stereotypical example of post rock, Swans makes us look at the genre like Bark Psychosis did when they were first coined as post rock. What will come in the rock scene when the world is in a post- apocalyptic nuclear winter? What will the musical visionaries of the next 300 years brew up? Swans provides a small window into that world. The Seer is, like its title suggests, is like a divination into the purest musical expression humanity can produce while maintaining an air of musical structure and taste. While Merzbow may hold the record for purifying human anguish into sound, Swans makes human emotion musical.

In the end, there is almost too much to collate and process in The Seer. A raw expression of musical experimentation, this album transcends the bounds of post rock, progressive rock, or experimental and avant-garde music. The Seer is a masterpiece by default ? there is no other option for it. This album enters the listener's state of mind and forms and molds its structure during listening. Without a doubt, this album earns the highest marks. 5 stars.

Report this review (#1103001)
Posted Monday, December 30, 2013 | Review Permalink
BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars This is one of those very rare albums that comes along once in a great while--maybe every two or three years--that catches me by surprise--that is so unexpected, contains music that is so far beyond my experience or imagination as to absolutely blow me away! This album has also, once and for all, confirmed for me that I have a very serious attraction to/affinity for trance- inducing music. This music drives and thrums and sucks you into its maelstrom of controlled chaos. It induces entrainment--an experience I value perhaps more than any other in this lifetime. For those of you who don't know about, or who might have never heard of 'entrainment,' it is a word used to describe the event of the 'synchronization' of a multiplicity of persons (or beings) into a singular rhythm. For a musician or music listener this is a supra- or meta-physical event in which time and space seem to disappear due to the deep connection one is experiencing with the music, the rhythms, the experience of feeling as if one is within/a part of the music. Their is forged an amazing interconnection to all others in--a veritable disappearance of ego and I-ness, which is replaced with an unhuman feeling of being so connected to the music, to the (other) musicians, that one could swear that the 'perfect' and 'magical' music is being channeled through the collective--as if it is effortlessly coming through onesself as if seeking to take its place among and with the notes, rhythms and sounds of the others. It is understood that on a very deep, unconscious level humans are drawn to the lake- and sea-shores because the rhythm of waves rolling up onto the beaches is one with which the human Cranial Rhythmic Impulse (the brain's rhythmic pumping action of cerebral spinal fluid) entrains--creating a very steady, healthy, and healing physiological event within the human host. Entrainment is when feelings of connectivity and unity supercede all illusions of separation and disconnection. The music of The Seer is music to entrain to.

Five star songs: "Mother of The World" (9:59) (10/10); "The Seer" (32:13) (10/10); "The Avatar" (8:51) (10/10); "A Piece of the Sky" (19:10) (10/10); "The Apostate" (23:00) (10/10); and, "Lunacy (6:10) (9/10).

This was (and is) The Best Album I've Heard from 2012 and my #2 "favorite" album from that same year.

Report this review (#1104234)
Posted Tuesday, December 31, 2013 | Review Permalink
4 stars "The Seer" is the album that introduced me to Swans and remains, by a long shot, my favourite. After the release of its predecessor, the long awaited "My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope In The Sky", the band impressed many of their old fans and welcomed some newcomers (like myself) with a new twist on their notably otherworldly signature sound. But it was "The Seer" that brought all of the elements together for me. Their latest release "To Be Kind" seems to be a little difficult for me to grasp (at least at the moment). While it does have its moments in songs like "Oxygen" and "Toussaint L'Overture", the lengthy improvisations feel more like filler than experimentalism. Perhaps they were afraid they might let their fans down with a shorter album? All I know is that the stars aligned perfectly for them on this one. "The Seer" therefore gets 4-stars, but extremely close to the "masterpiece" tier. For me, it would have to include more progressive flavours, but this would change the overall sound, so it's really a paradox. The album would achieve a 5-star rating as an experimental or avant-garde work though.

"Lunacy" kicks the 2-hour pilgrimage of an album off, with very well structured minimalistic approaches, piled on with multiple dissonant arrangements. The twangling dulcimers and guitar pulses intertwine beautifully, plus whatever the other instruments are. The regular sonic lifts really bring it to life in the intro, just before Michael Gira's vocals enter. Ultimately, there are some pretty catchy melodies and harmonies on here (for Swans at least). There is so much flying about through the repetitive rhythms, and is probably already the culmination of the album. A great acoustic coda too, with some haunting echoes. If this track really has no appeal to you whatsoever, I'd really recommend spending your next 2 hours listening to something else. Definitely continue with it if you've got enough time and patience.

"Mother Of The World" has a more demanding and adrenaline-filled rocking but constantly biting pulse. Almost like some sort of man-beast is running from a superior predator, teamed with the taunting free vocals laid on top. Very good passages near the end too, with the more luxurious arpeggios after such an intense beat, plus the droning vocals from Gira again. Another great track but not as impressive as the opener. "The Wolf" then acts as a short breather to get you back on your feet, making it a much needed track if its your first listen. Like many parts of "The Seer" the lyrics and delivery from the Swans' frontman is very intense and almost emotional, because of the strong empathy you feel for the characters that are almost suffering from the place where this music comes from. Also fits that excellent album cover very well, and includes some well-employed techniques.

The title track cuts you right off this with more transcendent "organised chaos". Feels very free and alive, maintaining the primal theme on "The Seer". There's so much to say about this 30-something minute track, but on the whole it creates a wonderful atmosphere and gives you an extremely unique musical experience - increasingly difficult to discover and indulge yourself into at length nowadays. It doesn't put you in a trance and doesn't give you some sort of musical out-of-body experience, because of its constant change. In a way, this is great, but it means it can become tiresome unlike other long-length works like Tangerine Dream's "Zeit". The band really use just about every musical technique, with the subtly shift of the dynamics and drones plus some unexpected chord progressions when you look beneath the surface. Sums up the album and even perhaps Swans approach to music and sound to an extent. In a strange way, you can think of "Lunacy" as the single, and "The Seer" as the more esoteric and adventurous masterpiece.

"The Seer Returns" immediately with a slightly more airy, psychedelic feel before returning to another plodding rhythm with droning improvisations poured on top. More twisted poetry again, with no huge significance, but sounds brilliant against the circling rigid block of guitars. A typical but terrifically constructed Swans song. "93 Ave. B Blues" is the weakest song on the album, with no definite direction or structure - just very intriguing. The 2 sort of balance each other out to create a mediocre Swans song. Overall, no real excitement and not totally essential to the album. Lets down some of the album's consistency for me. "The Daughter Brings The Water" is a superb end to side 1. Much more melodic than the previous track (another bit of good sequencing, more than necessary for such a long work). Nothing outstanding in terms of experiment or musicality, but just a sort of lullaby to put your mind at rest and prepares you for the next side.

"Song For A Warrior" is definitely an arcane gem of the 21st century, with the addition of Karen O on vocals. Pretty textbook stuff on how to make an emotional song (the lyrics, sinking guitar glissandos, and distant acoustics) but has a different charming aura, a little like "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea". At the end, it does grow to feel a little typical, but still very nice. "Avatar" is a little dull and a bit of an old trick. The constant ringing bells make it too broad for too long, making it a bit exhausting. The lyrics again seem somewhat off the mark, but on the whole good. Room for improvement. "A Piece Of The Sky" is a very atmospheric soundscape, and quite difficult to describe. The bells are put to good use on this track, as well as the monotonousness (:P). Well selected instruments, which is often under-appreciated when an artist is granted such freedom. You have to make your own boundaries, which is hard enough, but also making them work requires a real genius. The piece undergoes a few large changes to keep the listener from feeling less alienated, so quite a generous Swans song really. The melody on "Are you there?" is a fantastic relief from the erring-on-insane ramblings of Gira.

"The Apostate" is the final bang, with some incredibly strong and intense passages and themes. Certainly a fitting title when reading the lyrics, and the screams of the guitars seem to emanate a strangely fresh greyscale tone. Again, very lively, chaotic and dissonant, with a very enduring (torturing for some) sound that illustrates some sort of anger or frustration with it all, teamed with an apathetic mood given off by the prolonged cacophonous groans and jabs throughout the song. Not the best track, but certainly incredible in terms of improvisation, talents, and structuring. Another moment of magic captured and devastated by Swans' wall of crushing power. The aims and intentions, somehow fulfilled on "The Seer" is just astronomical. Swans seem to cover numerous genres in just 2 minutes, let alone 2 hours. The band's unique and experimental nature brought their discography onto ProgArchives, where I thankfully discovered their one-of-a-kind outlook on music. A remarkably high 4-star album.

B+: Why has no-one thought of this before?!

Lunacy: ***** Mother Of The World: **** The Wolf: ***** The Seer: ***** The Seer Returns: ***** 93 Ave. B Blues: *** The Daughter Brings The Water: **** Song For A Warrior: **** Avatar: **** A Piece Of The Sky: ***** The Apostate: *****

Report this review (#1105428)
Posted Thursday, January 2, 2014 | Review Permalink
Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars A sustained and carefully optimised sonic attack, The Seer runs the full gamut from ugly doomy drones to gorgeous post-rock passages and beyond. Definitely an album to lose yourself in over a wide space of time - with tracks extending for as long as half an hour this isn't something which you can really dip in and out of quickly - it offers some of the most subtle and startling soundscapes in recent music. Recent Swans releases have been divided between major releases and more fannish releases intended to provide means of funding the truly important projects; this is one of those important projects, and it truly merits being considered as such.
Report this review (#1555400)
Posted Sunday, April 24, 2016 | Review Permalink
Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Well I'm slowly getting through SWANS discography and so far I'd say "Soundtracks For The Blind" is my favourite, and I do Like "To Be Kind" better than "The Seer" for what it's worth. "The Seer" is a double album with 2 hours worth of music for our listening pleasure(haha). Yes as usual this is long, repetitive and experimental, and while I don't love it I almost always seem to come away very impressed with Gira's final product. A ton of guests helps out here which is surprising to me as there doesn't seem to be that many instruments in play but apparently I'm wrong.

Disc one starts with "Lunacy" as we get this repetitive guitar melody and keys I think as the atmosphere rolls in. Vocal expressions too before it kicks into a heavy groove. Vocals and a more stripped down sound 2 1/2 minutes in and this will continue until it turns more powerful a minute later. A calm before 4 1/2 minutes and relaxed vocals will also join in.

"Mother Of The World" has this repetitive mechanical rhythm that goes on and on. Organ joins in before 2 1/2 minutes. Some vocals a minute later and then it all stops 4 1/2 minutes in as a powerful sound kicks in with male vocals. It's slowing down at 5 1/2 minutes and then it seems to actually get brighter before 6 1/2 minutes. "The Wolf" is a short one with slow drawn out vocals that pretty much speak the words. The atmosphere before a minute is really cool.

"The Seer" is the long one at over 32 minutes. Yikes! It sounds like bag pipes amongst all that atmosphere that seems to hum and hover. It starts to wind down around 2 1/2 minutes and soon we get a beat with what sounds like banjo and atmosphere. Hints of power come and go as this plays out. Vocals arrive as it builds with some active drum work. Later it's building before 11 minutes until we get chaos a minute later. It then starts to slow down as we get repetitive outbursts of power that come and go. They stop around 22 minutes as it stays powerful and atmospheric. It then starts to calm down with some harmonica. A beat and more arrives around 28 minutes and vocals follow. It's more powerful after 30 minutes.

"The Seer Returns" has this rhythm that seems to go in circles here. It turns powerful rather quickly and we get male spoken words after 1 1/2 minutes. Soon he's singing but in a relaxed manner. It's louder later on, catchy stuff. "93 Ave. B Blues" is the most experimental track on here, very avant. We get those sounds that cry out from the start to the point of screeching. A dark atmosphere comes and goes along with vocal expressions. It turns explosive after 4 minutes until 5 minutes in. "The Daughter Brings The Water" ends disc one and it's mainly a guitar melody with Gira singing.

Disc two starts with "Song For A Warrior" and we get this relaxed sound with guitar, piano and atmosphere as reserved female vocals join in. There's a brief instrumental break as well. "Avatar" opens with a sample of something I can't recognize as bells and drums join in. Sounds like sleigh bells. The beats are getting louder along with the atmosphere after 3 minutes but then it settles back a minute later. Male vocals before 5 minutes. It kicks in hard before 8 minutes and the tempo picks up as well.

"A Piece Of The Sky" might be my favourite. The sound reminds me of a very large fire that crackles away and from the title of this song it may have been caused by lightning or something else. Vocal melodies just before 2 minutes replace the fire. Soon it's atmosphere only humming and hovering over the soundscape. Vocals after 6 1/2 minutes before it all turns quite noisy. A heavy rhythm takes over before 10 minutes and continues until before 15 minutes when it settles down with a relaxed beat and picked guitar. Male vocals after 15 1/2 minutes as the relaxed sound continues to the end.

"The Apostate" ends it in an apocalyptic manner. It almost sounds like sirens going off over and over as we get this disturbing mood. Explosive sounds after 6 minutes. Absolute insanity during this long section. The tempo picks up before 9 minutes. It seems to be settling back some 12 1/2 minutes in then a repetitive beat that's catchy kicks in a minute later. Vocals a minute after that. Grating sounds before 19 minutes then suddenly 22 minutes in we get a barrage of loud drums and yells to end it.

I just get so intrigued with how experimental the SWANS can be with all those samples thrown in too. It's innovative music but certainly not for everybody. I'm sure some think it's all trash but despite my enjoyment factor not being as high as I'd like this is a 4 star album in my world.

Report this review (#1868141)
Posted Saturday, January 20, 2018 | Review Permalink
ProgShine
COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
1 stars In my opinion music can go wherever it wants and can have the form that the musicians choose. There are no rules. However, there are rules for me!

There are many, many listeners who follow certain publications/sites and take pride in being 'different', and they end up in an alternative world, along with several other listeners. At the end of the day all we have is a legion of alternative listeners who hear and worship the same things, not so alternative in the end...

Well, why this text 'nothing to do with anything' at the beginning of this review? Because to me Swans has always been in this category: music for people that is alternative, but it is not. Who wants to make strange and different music just for the simple fact of wanting to be different. Period.

That's what The Seer showed me.

I tried to listen to the record without preconceptions, maybe there was a good record to be discovered (finally) by me. No. Deception.

Songs that are long simply 'because yes', not because there is a purpose. Songs that come out of nowhere and get nowhere (The Seer, the song, being the perfect example of my statement). And at the end of the record we get this question in our minds: what's the purpose of this record, whyit exists?

The discography of the band is all full of hype and the alternative ones love to adore the band. Oh, and they are influence to many other modern and equally cool new bands that also fills us with the same emptiness of The Seer.

I wonder if The Seer was recorded without the pretension, without all the cool vibe around it, without the intention of being 'cool'. I imagine it would have been a good record, because there are several good moments that are simply destroyed by the pretension.

Report this review (#1891686)
Posted Tuesday, March 6, 2018 | Review Permalink
TCat
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
5 stars "The Seer" by Swans came out of nowhere and knocked any expectations of the band right on its ear. Everyone knows the Swans discography started out with some of the most brutal music known to man, then it morphed into a sort of thinking- man's gothic rock, slowly becoming better and better as time passed, and then suddenly, the bands light went out. Michael Gira, the main person behind the band went on to form "Angels of Light", still creating great music, but sounding hardly anything like any of his previous work. When the time ran out for that project, Gira turned his attention back to Swans, and no one had any idea how much his musicality had grown until this album came out in 2012. It is now the band's masterpiece.

So, to create this double monstrosity of an album, Gira and the members of the band put together a lot of music, sound, textures and such, and no one was going to tell him what he was going to do, or if they did, he didn't listen. He pulled out all of the stops, making tracks for this album that varied in duration from one minute to over 32 minutes long. And, when you listen to this excellent album, you discover that the music is anything but random.

So, the music is harsh and also lovely. But not harsh like it was back in the early days. Now the music is full of dynamic and style changes. Even though it is not near as brutal, it is still more emotionally charged and hard hitting than ever. The band was now incorporating everything that was great about the new style of progressive rock, and making it all mesh together wonderfully. The tracks on this album are an amazing study in repetition, noise, textures, drones, post and math rock sensibilities, and progressive styles that make things as unpredictable as possible. And Gira's vocals were working better than ever with this new sound. There are times in this album where riffs are repeated almost to the point that they become obnoxious only to suddenly change out of nowhere and everything is planned and calculated to push you almost to the limit before suddenly veering off in another direction, but nothing about it sounds random. What it sounds like is genius at work.

The album has its share of surprises and guests, including former fellow bandmate Jerboe on "The Seer Returns" and "A Piece of the Sky", "Low" bandmates Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker on opening track "Lunacy", "Yeah Yeah Yeah"s vocalist Karen O on "Song for a Warrior", and others. What results from this is an album with a surprising amount of variety, yet cohesiveness. The thing that holds the album together more than anything is the long-form tracks that sit just as comfortable among the "normal" length tracks like they are all part of the grand design. The 3 extra long tracks here are almost like "mini-albums" all on their own. "The Seer" is a 32 minute behemoth of a track that takes the listener on a guided tour of the gears in Gira's mind that gives insight into what the overall process of creativity must feel like from inside his head. When listening to this track, and to the album as a whole, it is easy to understand why he decided to pack so much length into a track that isn't divided up into multiple tracks, because once the track is over and you are catching your breath, you feel like the statement has been made and now it is time to move to the next. But be prepared, because you are going to have your breath taken away two more times with the two long form songs on the 2nd disc.

As much as it is a temptation to explain in detail every single track on this album, it is also a fruitless exercise to do so. Words just won't explain the experience of the album. The music might not sit well with everyone, and it's not supposed to. If you can't tolerate a sense of unease in music in order to arrive to a destination, then this is not for you. You do have to be patient to get to some payoffs, and other times they come quickly, but in the end, you feel like there was purpose behind it all. It would be impossible to try to figure out Gira's reasoning behind some things in the decisions he makes when determining where to take his compositions, but that is not our job. It is our job to listen to this music and enjoy it, be stimulated by it, or just decide to shun it all together. But, "The Seer" is a definite masterpiece that shows the development of an artist who wasn't ever afraid to do what he wanted in music. In the world of modern progressive music, it is difficult to achieve what Gira did with "The Seer", using new-form progressive composition to create something that could be considered innovative and as impressive as say Yes' "Close to the Edge". But to those that are patient and are willing to explore the music, you will find that amazing music still exists, it just takes time sometimes to get it. But, then , the best music always does.

Report this review (#2341652)
Posted Thursday, March 12, 2020 | Review Permalink
Dapper~Blueberries
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Listening to music for pleasure is all the rage, but what about listening to music for pain? Music for masochists, stuff that is displeasing to listen to but still fills the void of sound to where it is very preferable. You could try Harsh Noise like Merzbow, or perhaps some intense Drone Metal like Boris or Sunn O))). However, say you want something a bit more in the Rock vein of things that aren't just Noise; something to jam to and experience. Something brimming with energy more so than anything else. Well, my friend, let me introduce you to Swans. Swans is the only band I consider in the realm of Rock, more specifically Post Rock, to be music for displeasure. This is not to say they are bad, in fact I absolutely love their scary music with all my heart. Such powerful musicianship they have raised since their debut of Filth in '83. Their works from their No Wave powerhouses of Cop, to their Gothic Folk Rock lamentations of White Light From the Mouth of Infinity, to their early Post Rock workings of Soundtracks For The Blind, to their now new era of excellency, the band has gone through the thick of it that they have grown old, experienced, and absolutely brilliant. I found their music to be extremely powerful in every way, but never in their career have I never finished an album of theirs fully. Even some of their most insane, skull kicking records were pretty much easy to get through, albeit very bizarre and scary. That is, though, with the exception of The Seer.

Me and The Seer is something I cannot shake off. Ever since my first attempt, just something about it, while not rubbing me in the wrong way, was very overwhelming for me. This was one year ago in 2021 when I was a Sophomore in high school, when I was still experimenting with what music I liked most. I was listening to Mother Mother, Magma, Arctic Monkeys, Nine Inch Nails. It was a brewing pot of different artists and their ideas that would later shape my life experiences with music as a whole, resulting in who I am now. Swans was amongst those artists, and I always felt a strange connection to their music. I decided, around that time, to give The Seer a chance, and my first experience with this album was so mesmerizing, but so overbearing that before getting into A Piece Of The Sky I turned it off because it felt so intense. Looking at it now, with a much broader musical palette and more of a craving for some intense music, I can see why it was so strong for me. I just couldn't handle such power. Safe to say I was not ready for psychological warfare in my music.

After listening to it again, fully this time around, man, was I missing out on some amazing music. This is still not my favorite Swans album since that goes to To Be King, but The Seer does scratch my itch for cathartic music. Its power and presence alone is quite a treat for me in the grand scheme of things, and even if not all the songs can be real home runners like the title track, The Seer Returns, Song For A Warrior, or Lunacy, 99% of the tracks on here have moments that make me feel like I am both getting embraced in comfort, whilst also getting pelted by bricks in a guerilla war zone. The band's performances, combining Folk, Drone, American Gothic Country, Post Punk, Noise, and even a tiny bit of Brutal Prog to their mix of Post Rock really makes for performances that can be both highly profound and heartfelt, but also be highly brutal and oftentimes scarring. This album is not for those who want easy listening. As I said before, this is music for pain, and no matter what type of pain it is, this album will have it.

I absolutely love Michael Gira's singing here. I think his voice ages like a fine wine the older he grows. He has that outlaw charm to his voice, combined with the more grueling musical arrangements and you get a combination of both power, glory, and wit.

The Seer, for me, has the strongest feat of making the best masochistic music you'll ever hear, but because of it comes the fault of it being too overwhelming. This is a nearly two hour goliath of a record, spanning tracks that take well over 15 minutes, sometimes reaching upwards to the 30s. Despite all the praises I can give for this album, I must address that this is certainly an album that should be digested in small doses. Don't be like me and eat it whole, because this album demands everything from you. Your attention, your thoughts, your fears. 'Stead of listening to the near 2 hours catharsis of music on here, listen to 2 or 4 tracks and after a while, listen to another 2 or 4 tracks that you haven't heard before. Maybe start with the smaller tracks and then to the bigger epics. The album's biggest high and low I can say is that it is overwhelming and demanding, which is what I expect from a Swans release, but for some who want to check out the band or this album, maybe take the album on a date first and get to know it on its smaller, more subtler moments rather than its grander scale sores.

That said, what The Seer has to offer is music that should be experienced at least once in people's lives. There will never be another album in the history of Swans like The Seer, and I think that is perfectly fine. The Seer is Swans' first of three albums that have their own unique twists and turns, and The Seer is merely one of many great examples of the band's power and glory over Post Rock. I'll say, if you are curious about the stasis of experimental music back then or now, put on a Swans record, because I guarantee you that you'll have something quite special in your hands. An amazing record that I think holds its own in the sea of Lift Your Skinny Fists and Happy Songs For Happy Peoples.

Report this review (#2855470)
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2022 | Review Permalink

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