I have been listening to albums for years, and I kinda just dismissed

I'm in the same boat as you rn OP. Loving their newest three albums! Sorry I can't help. What's your favourite of the three?

>>71287141
I really fucking loved The Seer, and then TBK was excellent too.
I almost forgot to mention how I love the way Gira matured vocally on these comparatively to the old stuff, theres a lot less warble, a ton of grit and passion.

It was actually The Glowing Man that won me over first, and it's my favourite. I really like The Seer now too, and am coming around to To Be Kind. I'll have to look out for the difference in his singing next time I try some of their old stuff!

>>71287112
Sounding "dated" and ""corny"" right on arrival is an inherent part of the goth aesthetics, really. Children Of God executes it as good as it gets.

Oddly enough I like Swans the first time I heard them. The first song I listened to was The Seer and I had a strange attraction to it. From there I went chronologically and they've been a favorite of mine ever since.

>>71287112
>>71287141
>>71287194
Most people don't like their early albums at first. I loved To Be Kind but thought their early albums were boring. There's a good chance you'll grow to like them more and more. Greed is what got me into their older stuff, if that helps.

>>71287112
That era of Swans is totally dated, but that's also not a bad thing.
I will say on that note though that The Burning World, White Light, and Love of Life are all dated sounding to me, though they still aren't too bad. I like all of their other stuff better though.

>>71288241
>>71287548
I will definitely take this into consideration, how do you guys feel about Soundtracks, Children of God and Filth?

>>71287112
Holy Money is great, it's a live record. Children of God and Soundtracks for the Blind are my favorites.

>>71288805
Holy Money isn't a live album?

>>71287112

Took a while to click for me, too. Try Feel Good Now, the Children of God tour live album. It has more aggressive versions of CoG tracks that make the studio album make more sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GnLohLP_y8

>>71288733
Filth is timeless, as well as Soundtracks for the Blind. I never got into Children of God.

I've been listening to Swans discography for the first time and I'm doing it chronologically, I only just listened to Children of God today and I really enjoy it. In fact I've enjoyed everything so far, really good band imo, and I've heard that their later albums are more popular so I can't wait

>>71288940
Oh, sorry. I was thinking of Public Castration is a Good Idea, which is live and contains recordings from Holy Money.

If you're physically inclined, listening to Cop while skateboarding is pretty great

>>71288985
Wait until you hear Soundtracks and The Seer, anon. Those are like seeing Lord of the Rings for the first time in terms of magnitude.

>>71288954
Interesting, I really do want to see the appeal behind CoG, it is such a challenge

>>71288985
What else are you into?

As someone who really enjoys all their output:

I enjoy their straight up no wave stuff (Filth, Cop, Young God, Public Castration) just because of how heavy and relentless it sounds. Even by modern day standards it's all relatively abrasive, with loud, hard percussion (the percussion in particular has aged pretty well in most of their music due to how loud and hard it's always been) and those are all coupled with no wave's more rhythmic overall approach to music and repetition to deliver that feeling. Not even the most crazy hardcore punk or metal record maintains such a non-melodic and hard hitting bent. By far their most brutal output.

Then comes into play Greed, Holy Money, and Children Of God. While not as heavy and brutal as the stuff mentioned before, this stuff makes up for it with a wider set of timbres being used and those timbres being used in interesting ways. This leads to an interesting kind of atmosphere which still has that non-melodic industrial bent, but a more psychedelic take on that. Sure there were post-punk and industrial bands went a surreal bent, but it didn't have the weird spiritual psychedelic of Swans. The aesthetics on these albums is really weird and what really end up catching anyone off-guard (thus the "corny") but they can definitely be appreciated for what they are.

Just keep in mind for all the above set of records that they are far more percussive and rhythmic due to their industrial nature (regardless of being part of the industrial genre) than melodic and layered. Weirdly enough they are almost like hip hop or certain forms of electronic music in that regard.

With the next four studio works (Burning World, White Light, Love Of Life, and Great Annihilator), they go through aspects of neofolk and gothic rock. Think of what more progressive folk guys like Comus and Neil Young did with their arrangements, but with a far darker bent.

i liked filth when i first listened because of how heavy and angry and real it was. just so brutal. then i listned to cop and it was like filth but twice as heavy and monstrous. it's just really brutal music. if you like heavy rhythms and grooves, you can probably learn to like them. personally, i don't care for children of god or holy money, but the live versions of holy money and greed are really great. same sort of energy as filth and cop.

>>71289853
My top artists at the moment are ASIWYFA and GY!BE

>>71290721
Top post

>>71287112
no wave swans > post rock swans > new swans > gothic swans > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> emo country swans

>>71290721
This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you so much for the input