![]() Take “Mother Of The World,” which opens with heaving breaths and a rebounding, repetitive guitar riff anchored by Thor Harris’ drumming. It’s that gratification when the songs’ hearts are revealed, that really makes The Seer work though. At their cores, the songs on here are (dare I say it) on par with the best in the Swans canon, but they’re also characteristically obfuscated by extended drone, noise, and post-rock passages that take up the majority of the album’s running time. ![]() It has all the makings of a great album – impeccable guest spots (Karen O, Jarboe, Akron/Family, Low), enormous scope (almost 2 hours long), and most importantly, high-quality material that personifies the artists behind it. But The Seer presents a different model, one that impossibly meets the lofty proclamations made behind it. ![]() When a band starts hyping its 12th studio album as its best work (or something of a similar ilk), it’s usually a sign they’ve jumped the shark and are only still in the business for monetary reasons. Michael Gira has actively discussed the creation of The Seer, stating that the songs “began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.” He also called it “the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in or imagined.” Well, shit. There was also a DVD trailer for the live concert film that comes with the special edition of The Seer. There were acoustic demo bonus tracks on We Rose for songs that would end up on The Seer. There was a live album earlier this year ( We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head) that featured almost an hour’s worth of material that ended up on The Seer. Not many albums get the kind of progressive documentation that The Seer received prior to its release.
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