Song of the Day 09/20/12: Swans – The Seer

I don’t know why I’m sharing this.  I don’t want to, but I feel compelled.  Swans recently released their extremely long new album called The Seer.  I must admit I was never really a fan of Swans and I still don’t really know if I am.  I don’t even think that you should necessarily listen to this song.  I also don’t think most of you will based on it’s length alone.  The Seer is a MONSTER.  I don’t just mean in the length of the track.  I mean it may literally try to eat your soul.  The song is a WALL of sound!

At first hearing it may even sound repetitive, but I guarantee you it is anything but.  Every repeated sound is slightly different than the last.  The drums especially are constantly changing beats and moving all over the bass.  And this song is LOUD (Obviously turn the volume way up).   Most of all, it is brutal.  When I said it would quite possibly steal your soul I wasn’t joking.  For the first 20 or so minutes the song just builds and builds.  It calls to mind the most violent scenes from movies like 28 Days Later or There Will be Blood, where time seems to move exhaustingly slow during an increasingly traumatic experience.  For me, it felt like I was being attacked by someone and I finally got the upper hand around the 20 minute mark, and bashed their head in with a brick.  When the harmonica section finally falls into place, I just picture myself sitting in a puddle of my blood and that of the person I murdered, and just thinking “What the hell just happened here?”  Strangely, there are vocals over the last five minutes of the track.  This is where I picture the screen going black in the movie in my mind and the credits start to roll.

I’m being a hundred percent serious.  This is the experience you will have if you listen to this song.  So don’t listen to it.  Have a happy day and a happy life without it.  I wish I didn’t have to share it, but in all its dark gritty despair there is just something in this song that was able to provoke emotions I’d never gotten out of music before.  That is something special and something that must be shared.