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Rating: Among the horror poses, zombie costumes, piercing screams to the rhythm of disco music, and many bands caught up in the dark fever, the Swans undoubtedly represented an artistic example of unattainable value.
Formed in the early '80s by Mike Gira, a rock damned with a tumultuous past, they immediately stood out for the "heaviness" of their sound, a devastating tank that rolls its tracks over the debris of the human soul. Over time, especially thanks to the addition of Jane Jarboe in 1985, pianist and Gira's partner, the sound became more tempered, always marked by immense gashes of pain, but with a more intellectual approach, almost a kind of Gothic chamber music.
Children Of God is the example of this new course and perhaps represents the masterpiece of all '80s dark music.
The album immediately stands out for the notable variety of the tracks. It ranges from the lugubrious tone of Gira's living-dead voice over heavy metal distortions to Jarboe's paradisiacal solfeggio with classical accompaniment. This cocktail, besides being unique in the panorama, gives the album an irresistible charm, but most of all highlights the depth of the Swans project, certainly light years away from the many "cardboard" bands that were rampant at the time.
The whole album is permeated by a biblical vocabulary, in fact, it is primarily a concept about redemption and sin.
The heavy cadence of "New Mind" welcomes the listener into the inferno of Gira's soul. His Luciferian baritone voice declaims verses duetting with a background chorus of the damned, while an intermittent church organ punctuates with chilling phrases.
But soon after, you enter Jarboe's enchanted garden: "In My Garden" is indeed a very delicate lullaby for her siren-like voice, on guitar arpeggios and flute solfeggios. A track full of mysticism, alien and indefinable, from a paradisiacal landscape over which a sense of impending tragedy is palpable. It's almost like listening to more sinister and anguished Popol Vuh.
The sky grows more cloudy on the apocalyptic gospel-folk of "Our Love Lies", where Gira again becomes the master of the house.
The menacing chamber ballet of "Blood And Honey" is another masterpiece of looming catastrophe where Jarboe's voice becomes malevolent and plaintive, elevated on the altar of evil by resounding guitar strokes and ominous electronic phrases.
"Girl, You Are Not Real" is another beautiful icy folk song, a cold ritual pronounced by Gira's catacombal voice. The great difference is made by the arrangements, where the class gap compared to the rest of the company emerges conspicuously. The Swans demonstrate a truly refined taste for dark atmospheres and achieve a real mystical stasis in the slower moments, which is counterweighted by a grim and damned register in the more violent ones.
The nightmare marching at a solemn pace of "Real Love" represents the hybrid of these two faces. Gira elevates himself as a true priest, while an epic accordion punctuates the whole with a chilling lament.
The title track, with its slow-paced gait, could have taken the dance floors by storm if only it had been sped up, instead Jarboe's medieval-like singing "limits" itself to granting another masterpiece, on a damned martial cadence and a heavy-metal riff.
After this unsettling journey is over, one can only be stunned in front of this timeless gem.
Anyone who will engage with gothic-industrial in the future will surely owe a debt to their great lesson.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 New Mind (05:14)
In the place
Where no one knows
Where they were before
Or what they're doing where
They are now
I will be there
With my eyes wide open
I will be there
(I will be there)
I will be ready
To receive
The new mind
Now I am a man
Now I am a man
But I'm nothing now
And God is mine
Yeah God is mine
Yeah my sin is me
And God is mine
Now I am ready
Now I am ready
To receive
The new mind
Now people get ready
People get ready
The sex in your soul will damn you to hell
The sex in your soul will damn you to hell
Damn you to hell
Damn you to hell
I will be there
I will be there
When he calls my number I will be there
Let the light come in
Damn you to hell
Let the light come in
Damn you to hell
Now save your soul
Damn you to hell
Now save your soul
Damn you to hell
Save your soul
Save your soul
Save your soul
Save your soul
02 In My Garden (05:37)
In my garden
Things grow in my garden
Things will grow
Then they die
Then they fall away
Then they're gone
In my garden
In my garden
We'll never grow old
We'll never grow old
In my garden
Where the dew never dries
In my garden
In my garden
These roses
These black orchids are our friends
In my garden
When we breathe
When we breathe this air
We will breathe in these things
We will breathe in these things
In my garden
In my garden
We'll never die
We'll never die
In my garden
In my garden
05 Blood and Honey (04:48)
I found you lying where I drowned you
I found you lying where I lay with you
Where I threw you in the water
Where I drowned you in the river
Where I watched you roll away
Where I watched your body roll away
Roll away
Roll away
From everything we think we know
We'll lie down in the warm green grass
And the sun will shine on our pale shape
Our blood will flow black in the dirt
And a black rose will grow where we laid
08 Beautiful Child (04:54)
These are the things I hold onto
These are the things I use to deceive myself
I line them up in front of me
I judge them carefully
Then I throw them all away
I throw them all away
I am a small man
I am not a dangerous man
I love a child
I love a beautiful child
I love a child
I love a beautiful child
I will hold this child in my arms
And caress his soft head
Listen to him cry
Listen to him cry
I can kill the child
The beautiful child
I will kill the child
The beautiful child
This is my life
This is my choice
This is my damnation
This is my only regret
This is my life
This is my life
This is my sacrifice
This is my life
This is my only regret
That I ever was born
This is my sacrifice
Get out of my head
09 Blackmail (03:36)
Close your eyes
Close your eyes
Say the word
I want to hear
Come up behind me and hold on
Close your eyes
Close your eyes
And close in around me
Say you'll do anything for me
Say you'll do what you don't understand
Close your eyes
Close your eyes
Come all around me and hold on
I'll be your body when your body is broken
10 Trust Me (05:00)
Because I love you
I give you this
Don't be afraid of this
You can trust me now
Though we will deceive ourselves
You can trust me now
You can trust me now
Don't be afraid of this
It's not unusual
It's not unusual
Because I love you
You can trust me now
You will never know
You will never know
You can not trust me now
Don't be afraid of this
You can trust me now
It's not unusual
You can not trust me now
You will never know
It's not unusual
It's not unusual
11 Real Love (06:22)
My man walks on hands and knees
I am his first and only child
He is mine
He is my saint
He brings me roses and incense
And he closes my mind
He closes my mind
With real love
Real love
Real love
Real love
I will kiss the ground
Where he left a taste
of his strength of mind
Take me down
Take me down now
Take me down
Into the cold dead earth
Take me down
Take me down there
In your hands again
Take me down
Take me down
With real love
Real love
Real love
Real love
When I dream that sweet dream
When I forget where I am
I will always remember
Your hand on my shoulder
Pulling me down
Pulling me down
Into the cold dead earth
Take me down
Take me down
Take me down
Take me down there
With real love
Real love
Real love
Real love
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