Hailing from the 1980’s New York "No Wave" scene, the Swans are a powerful, uncompromising and truly experimental band. Their intense avant-garde sound has been known to scare listeners away and gain them fans for life. I was recently introduced to this band by way of their penultimate record “The Great Annihilator”, and here's what I thought about what I heard.
From the minute it begins to filter through your speakers, you know that "The Great Annihilator" is not an album you will easily forget, and by the time you are released from the Swans' enthralling rhythm you’re left wondering “what just happened?”. Listening to this album from beginning to end employs the same sort of sadomasochism as watching a horror movie. It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and yet there’s something compelling that won’t let you turn it off.
It starts off slow and unassuming, but by the end of the first track, "In", you can be sure something sinister is about to happen. Tracks such as “I Am The Sun” and “She’s Alive” draw you in with their pulsating beats and Michael Gira’s passive/aggressive vocals. Others such as “Mother/Father” and “Celebrity Lifestyle” take you by surprise with the duality of their unforgiving lyrics and more mainstream sound. “Killing For Company” is a love song for the homicidal maniac in all of us and the sickening sweetness of Jarboe’s vocals on “Mother’s Milk” could make you cry or run from the room screaming. “My Buried Child” is spoken in an eerie whisper reminiscent of Shakespeare and hints at rape, murder and other such atrocities while sounding almost like a nursery rhyme. The outstanding track from this album, however, is “Mind/Body/Light/Sound”, which blends the powerful and melodic aspects of the Swans perfectly.
It is quite obvious by listening that the Swans are remarkably talented. The instruments seem to echo off each other in each carefully orchestrated piece of music, and Gira and Jarboe’s voices contain natural depth and dimension along with a certain worldliness that makes them sound almost timeless. The other thing that sets the Swans apart from many bands is their genuine edge. Their lyrics and music are subtly dark, but they intrigue and disturb without resorting to cliché. The sound of the Swans as a whole however remains “musical noir”, and is certainly not for everyone. You can tell almost immediately that the Swans' music is essentially for them, with the audience being more or less an afterthought. You have to get used to the Swans before you can fully appreciate them, especially if this is your first experience with this type of sound. This is not music you can sing along to and it is not particularly catchy, but there is a haunting quality to it that keeps it with you long after you have listened.
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