Everyday I see a repost bot reposting some top post on the subreddit please mods 😭

I started with Filth, Holy fuck. I have now listened to this album on repeat 4 times. Favorite track is probably 'Power For Power'

Never noticed it was filed as Religious music. Honestly, fair.

Greetings

Sometime ago I started a live archive for Swans that has steadily expanded over the years, and now I’d like to make a big megathread/pinned post specifically for it!

The archive includes a massive collection of audio recordings, footage, and even photos. It also covers not just Swans but related acts like Angels of Light or Jarboe.

Here is the link to the folder!

Also of interest to some is a comprehensive guide of the, “must hear,” shows.

We're always looking for more to add, so if you have something feel free to message me!

We also have a dedicated discord community you can join here! You’ll be the first to hear about any new additions to the archive if you join, and meet fellow fans who understand how deep the well of their live material goes.

Apologies if these kinds of posts annoy people, but I'd love it if even one person checked this record out. Bleak is my mate and me - this is a 100% improvised piece of long-form music that combines drone, dark ambient, minimal, totalism, harsh noise and musique concrete. It's long, 77 minutes, which I think can put some people off, but surely Swans fans are braced for that...

If you Googke that album title, the AI will return 2 paragraphs, one about the album, and one about how public castration is not a good idea. I just find that very funny.

Refer to this post and let me know if you all want to see this type of post pinned or added to the sidebar. https://www.reddit.com/r/swans/s/1BezX0zRZE

Let your voice be known or I will assume this isn’t something a lot of people want. If I do get a lot of response to this I will happily help boost the cause.

Hi! I'm currently working on a Swans tier list for the Spanish-speaking community, since it's something that's really missing in our language. I also decided to include albums that I personally think should be understood as part of Swans' body of work—they're not just simple EPs or side projects.

That said, I feel like including everything would be too much, especially because not all of it is necessarily artistic in the same way. To me, some of the post-reunion Swans releases were mainly meant to help fund the studio albums. So these are the releases I'm planning to include. If you think I'm missing an important one, please let me know.

- Swans EP

- Young God

- Public Castration Is a Good Idea

- The three World of Skin albums

- Drainland

- Sacrificial Cake

- Swans Are Dead

- Live Rope

Two weeks ago, I asked in this subreddit where to start with Swans, given that I love Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Boards of Canada, and the majority recommended "Soundtracks for the Blind" to me. Thank you so much for the recommendation <3

I recorded a reaction for Disc 1 of the album this weekend, and I'll listen to the second part today.

But I gotta say, I almost didn't upload this video. Editing/watching the footage back made me realize how vulnerable and emotionally exposed I was during some of these songs. I wasn't so sure if I wanted people to see that. This album really got under my skin, and maybe someone will resonate with how I felt first experiencing it, and I figured that was worth sharing.

This was one of the most cathartic albums I've listened to!! I'm so happy I have finally given Swans a proper listen. Can't wait to dive into their huge discography :)

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Listening to To Be Kind, especially the first disc since that's the one I'm most familiar with, I've started to feel like the album is about some kind of spiritual enlightenment or spiritual path.

"Screen Shot" is an incredibly beautiful song in terms of its meaning. It invites you to appreciate the present moment. Both the music and the lyrics show how a simple idea can grow into something enormous. It reminds me a lot of the principles of certain spiritual traditions, especially the idea of the Observer.

I don't have much to say about "Just a Little Boy" or "A Little God in My Hands" because I still don't fully understand what they're trying to express. However, "A Little God in My Hands" gives me the feeling of an existential crisis, like someone questioning what the universe is and suddenly becoming aware of some kind of universal mind.

I think "Bring the Sun" expresses what I'm trying to say better than any other song on the album. That opening riff is so crushing, yet it feels like it's dragging itself forward. Michael's chants sound like a ritual demanding that the sun be brought back, and the different noise sections—especially the horse-like sounds—make it feel as if the journey toward revelation is happening through the music itself rather than through the lyrics. Those huge bursts of sound and the sheer physical intensity almost make your legs hurt.

Then "Some Things We Do" feels like a final reflection on everything that began with "Screen Shot," reflecting on the things we do that keep us attached to the flesh and pull us away from the divine.

I don't think the album is directly about these ideas, and I don't think the lyrics explicitly tell this story either. To me, this story is told mainly through the music itself.

I also don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but To Be Kind constantly evokes images of nature for me. It almost feels like an album created by Mother Earth herself.

I'd love to hear what story this album tells to you.

I’m just after listening to blackmail from swans 1987 album children of god, and jarboes voice in the song fits so well with the song when she loved me from Toy Story 2, it got me thinking if she will ever cover the song one day

I collect cds usually, but the standard edition of my father will guide me lacks the 40-minute song found on the special edition cd, and called look at me go. (A sound collage like the body lovers/ the beggar lover)

The special edition is very rare and very expensive so I'll probably won't be able to get it.

And I can't find anywhere to download the flac file for it, so if you know where to get it or you have it please tell us!

Ps. Do you think the speciel edition cd of my father will guide me will ever get a reissue?

How stupid is AI? I’m living in London UK and listening to Beggar Lover Three now and up jumps a Spotify message that Swans are playing in a pub near me on Sunday!

I’ve loved Swans since I was introduced to them in 1987, but this MBV tune has pure Swans vibes to me? Relentlessly rhythmic and unforgiving? Thoughts?

I went to two concerts from the last tour. My first experience of the tour in Warsaw had left me unimaginably speechless, but I couldn’t expect what the last Berlin show was about to serve. I travelled couple of hours to experience the grand finale of the tour. What happened there still stretches my bones till this day. I listened to a bootleg from that show couple of months ago, but since the wait for the newest live release (from that very concert) is still somewhere behind the corner, I’ve decided to play it once again.

Beside the marvellousness of the entire setlist and the concert itself, The End of Forgetting might be the one of the most decimating musical experiences in my entire live. I already knew for many years that long enhanced tracks make my heartbeat go faster. But what happens within these 41 minutes of pure musical magnificence is just above my strengths. You could call it a killer track, but then its gets a little bit more… a lot more than that. During the 2nd Berlin show, they went beyond their limits. It was spectacular, a truly shattering experience. The final outro is the very definition of a catharsis - not just musical, it goes in your mind back and forth. I used to think that old live versions of Echoes by Pink Floyd were the best modern fruitions of musical greatness. I’m no longer sure about it after experiencing TEoF live.

All the best to everyone who saw them live during the last tour, especially to all who had the pleasure of seeing them on 28th of November. I wish you to finally see the release of the long awaited live album. Cheers.

S tier could lowkey be swapped around and id still be happy with it i love all those albums so much. First 3 of A tier too a little bit.

Also curse michael gira forever. as much as i love the post-reunion Swans albums (more like tolerate for half of them) i dont think most of them needed to be 2 hours long. It was a gargantuan discog already at 17 albums, the last 6 being two hours long each didn't help.