On May 30, Michael Gira and Swans return with Birthing, the seventeenth album from the band, a typically expansive set available on three vinyl records, two compact discs, or digitally through Mute and Young God Records. It is a set of wide stylistic range that marks a transition for Gira, who remains a source of inspiration as an artistic survivor with an uncompromising artistic vision. Birthing extends an incredible creative streak with explosiveness, abstraction, and even atmospheric drift.
In the lead-up to Birthing’s release, Michael Gira has explained that this album and the autumn 2025 tour to follow will be the end of Swans, at least as the band has been known over the last few decades. But don’t fret. Gira has further stated that Swans will continue, but at a much smaller scale, and for as long as he’s able to keep it happening, which is hopefully a long time.
Wielding a duration of over 115 minutes, Birthing is another gargantuan entry in a discography that stands as a remarkable achievement. Swans’ body of work is especially notable for how it documents a constant, if gradual, evolution from the self-titled EP released in 1982 right up to this latest release and a consistency of quality across the span.
With Gira as leader from the beginning, Swans have never released a bad record (a couple lesser ones, sure, but those are still better than average). This beats the odds for bands in the rock field, and particularly outfits described as “heavy” (though the more appropriate term at this stage is transcendent), where stagnation is prevalent and often considered a virtue.
Requiring six sides of vinyl, Birthing isn’t necessarily unwieldy, but it does make demands on the listener, which has been something of a Swans constant. The early releases from the band remain among the most pummeling music in the history of sound recording, alongside live performances from the same period that have become truly legendary.
Interestingly, there are moments on Birthing, such as the culminating stretches of the title track and “Guardian Spirit,” that deliver a high caliber of pulsing pounding precision, but without the brutality that marked Swans’ early existence in the subterranean New York City scene. This is not to say that Birthing lacks moments of mayhem. For that, look no further than “The Merge,” with its bold dive into noise tactics.
But there are also spots where the band works up grooves that are recognizably rock in their thrust. Counterbalancing, there is calm, and Gira presides over everything with a restlessness poetic and spiritual. Overall, Birthing connects as an inspired summing up of Swans as a rock unit as Gira prepares to enter a new phase.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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