If Swans’ chronology consisted solely of what they’ve achieved since regrouping, they’d still be considered one of the most important bands in both experimental music and art-rock.
Their last three albums – 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me…, 2012’s The Seer and 2014’s To Be Kind – have been rapturously received. They’re all challenging, apocalyptic journeys through jazz, noise, prog and no-wave nihilism. The fact that Swans are over 30-years-old, and now 14 albums deep, adds further weight to their legacy.
This is reportedly the final LP from Swans as we know it, and it’s an exhaustive two-hour wig-out. If it’s not mantra-like chants inducing a state of hypnosis, it’s walls of guitar screech, avalanching down mercilessly. The half-hour title track and the 20-minute Frankie M are both terrifying and arresting – the audio equivalent of staring into a towering inferno, unable to look away. Then again, it’s nigh-on impossible to properly segment The Glowing Man once you’re deep within its confines.
If this is indeed the last we hear from Michael Gira and co. – as the closer Finally, Peace alludes to – let the record show Swans went down in flames. The exact way they wished.
BY DAVID JAMES YOUNG
