Since their 1983 debut, Filth, Swans have reinvented themselves more than perhaps any other band. Frontman Michael Gira has rallied multiple line-ups through multiple decades. The band has explored punishing no-wave, gothic country, and transcendent post-rock. But what has always remained consistent are Swans' themes of violence, power, lust and religion.
Leaving Meaning retains these themes, but scales back the bombast that post-reunion Swans have come to embody. Don't get it twisted: the album still, at points, sounds gargantuan. 'Sunfucker' is a vast and brutal track which could go toe-to-toe with any of the band's most extreme. But it's blessed with the delicacy of Gira's side-project, The Angels of Light.
Leaving Meaning is a more reflective and personal album than its immediate predecessors, too. Gira focuses on transitioning between life and death, rising to the face of God in his old age. 'Amnesia', a classic Swans track, has been re-recorded to stunning effect. Lyrics are, for the first time in decades, specific and scrutable — but they are being delivered by an older and wiser voice. The album is soaked in the past, but squinting at an uncertain future.
Likely to lose Swans some of their post-reunion fans, this album may end up a victim of its own subtlety. It imposes very little, with a greatly reduced focus on crescendos, riffs and walls of noise. But far from a deliberate rejection of these facets, Leaving Meaning is another evolution from a band whose history is defined by them. And it can proudly cap one of the most colourful contemporary discographies in the Western canon.
Leaving Meaning is available to purchase here.
Words by Andrew O’Keefe