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Big Takeover Great Annihilator Review
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Swans - The Great Annihilator/Drainland (Young God) 27 April 2017 by Chuck Foster By 1995, Swans had evolved through several styles of music, from no wave skronk to punishing industrial sludge to Southern Gothic ballads to driving, droning guitar rock. At the core, however, an uncompromising attitude remained the glue that held it all together, making each change a logical step in progression rather than an inability to focus. Finally, the album that was laughably dismissed by some critics as an attempt at mainstream accessibility sees a fully remastered reissue alongside founder/frontman Michael Gira’s debut solo album from the same year. More than any previous album, The Great Annihilator compiles the band’s various forays into a succinct sonic “best of.” Here, the intense thudding percussion that marked their earlier work meets the heavy majestic drone of their later. Dark, swampy ballads emerge from the din as well, making it the album that laid the blueprint for the Swans’ second wave. Every nuance, from 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky to last year’s The Glowing Man, can be heard, including Gira’s lamenting drawl encapsulating Iggy Pop, Jim Morrison and Johnny Cash, while keyboardist Jarboe also turns out some stellar vocal performances, particularly on “Mother/Father.” Drainland, on the other......
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Pitchfork Great Annihilator review
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by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni Contributor By 1995’s The Great Annihilator, Swans weren’t imitating pop music so much as swallowing its features to create something monstrous. This deluxe reissue also includes Michael Gira’s solo LP Drainland. Michael Gira was just two years away from pulling the plug on his band Swans when it released The Great Annihilator in 1995. Well before then, by the late 1980s in fact, it was clear that the shape-shifting experimental outfit had morphed into something quite far removed from the brutishly loud, grinding repetition of its early efforts. The difference was most glaring on its surprisingly faithful covers of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home.” From there, though, Gira and company re-calibrated their ability to bastardize pop music for a sound that was anything but conventional, even when they opted for seemingly traditional song structures and arrangements. The Great Annihilator documents a configuration of Swans that wore pop, country, and lounge stylings in a way that no longer clashed with the malevolence of the group’s spirit. By this point, Swans weren’t imitating pop music so much as swallowing its features to create something monstrous. And although the album suggests that Swans were still far cry from the orchestral ensemble Gira assembled when he......
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Great Annihilator Mojo review
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Paste Review of the Day: Swans - The Great Annihilator/Michael Gira - Drainland
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Paste Review of the Day: Swans - The Great Annihilator/Michael Gira - Drainland By Matt Fink | April 24, 2017 | 10:25am https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/04/paste-review-of-the-day-swans---the-great-annihila.html In 1995, Swans were a band in transition. Having maintained an album-a-year pace for most of their existence, they had taken an unusually long three years to release The Great Annihilator. By that point, Michael Gira and his constantly shifting lineup of bandmates had already laid the groundwork for a particularly caustic brand of industrial and noise music, mutating through No Wave, avant garde minimalism and surprisingly approachable experimental rock. But by the mid-’90s, Gira was restless and ready to move on, only two years away from disbanding the act altogether (albeit temporarily). The Great Annihilator would be the penultimate statement for that era of this project. Twenty-two years later, Gira admits in the press release for the album’s remastered reissue that he was never satisfied with the original’s murky, reverb-drenched mix. A lack of time and money had forced them to issue something that wasn’t quite what they wanted. After Bill Rieflin, drummer for the album, discovered the long-lost master tapes in his archive, Gira finally got his second chance at perfecting an LP that most fans already consider to be......
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Louder than War Albums of the Year 2016
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17. Swans – The Glowing Man A solid 10/10 from Editor in Chief John Robb for the latest from Swans. An album he says, “leaves you exhausted and bathed in sweat when you listen to it and emotionally and physically turned inside out.” Read his review here....