Perhaps my most anticipated album of the year, The Seer was naturally gonna get a listen pretty quickly. Unfortunately, after first listen, I'm a little stunned into silence, and not in the way I wanted to be. The first disc is, frankly, clunky. The "epic" feeling promised and largely delivered seems fake and cumbersome. This is probably the effect of giving an active listen to what amounted to an electric guitar-driven drone side, but the variety and texture of tones used to create Swans' soundscapes and cacophonies seems silly compared to a lot of drone and ambient that I've been getting into lately, and, honestly, these sounds go on for far too long. There is really little reason that the tracks on this side of the album, particularly the thirty minute centerpiece of the album, couldn't evolve a bit more fluidly and cut down on some time. There are long stretches where a riff is literally just repeated over and over with little grace and then CRESCENDO. I thought Swans were supposed to be ahead of the typical post-rock crescendo-core crowd, but here they sound like a slightly better-than-average post-GY!BE outfit.
Luckily, the last track of the first disc is an absolute gem and segues well with the first composition on the second disc. Both feature the sort of tortured vocals that always serve as strong counterpoint on Swans discs, and the return of female vocals to a Swans release is bittersweet: sweet in that it is a big step up from 2010's My Father...'s attempts at recreating and then further developing the Swans sound, but bitter in that it shows off that Swans really are back in true form and the result has been, in my opinion, less than successful as a whole. Anyway, after "The Daughter Brings the Water," the pace of the album definitely picks up, and the noisy drone-y segments actually feel as if they build to something and are ultimately more intriguing. There is still a good amount of noodling to be had, but the disc brings back the fascinating moody Swans of their past incarnation just a bit. Ultimately, it's nothing spectacular or game-changing, but it is strong enough to warrant the second listen I'll most likely give this set. For now, though:
Disc One: 6/10
Disc Two: 7.5/10
Overall: 7/10
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