Swans
The Seer

I am among us again. With an album that took thirty years to be conceived. An album that is the culmination of every previous Swans album, of Gira solo, of all that he has been able to imagine.

An album that can afford to start with Mimi Parker and Sparhawk, acolytes of Selene, singing a ritual dance, our brief stop at the Tree of Dreams before crossing the thresholds of Hades. An album that is catharsis, and perdition; and Mother of the World, incredibly born from six harmless acoustic strings, yes, it will be your march of rebirth, but it will march over you. The bells toll for you, and they toll for both death and baptism at the same time. Reduced to little pieces, what awaits you then is the title track. Indeed, more than anything, a healthy stretch of ocean awaits you, a swim not so small. And it seems pointless to specify that on those waters the sun will not shine, the wind will not be gentle, the waves will not be small, and the currents won't be harmless. And if you reach the end of the journey, you will experience The Seer Returns, which is nothing but the bottled-up mood of Gordon Pym in the last chapter of the book.

A lineup that has little to envy to the one that recorded Swans Are Dead, and if I'm exaggerating it's only because Jarboe is not a fixed member. So cheers to the future live versions of tracks like "Avatar", a true avalanche of emotions, a real knee-smasher, a true masterpiece, with a white-knuckle finish.

And when you hear the rain becoming noise, know that you are about to fall into the sky, in a mad ascent towards the eternal. Then, fallen to the top, hanging from the sky by the collar, you'll understand that everything is one and everything is Gira. Because up there, there's no one else to introduce you to "The Apostate", the most solid, cohesive, boulder-like twenty-three minutes you can imagine, and all on your head. To date, Gira has post-ified the post, and without irony. Laying the groundwork for something. The challenge will be to see if anyone else can fly that high.