Music

Interview: Swans crafts “total experience” on double album The Seer

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Swans: The SeerSwans: The Seer (Young God, 8/28/12)

“The Apostate” (edit)

Swans: “The Apostate” (edit)

The Seer, the new double album that follows Swans’ productive 2010 reunion and studio return, is a space in which to wander in furious mediation — as songwriter Michael Gira puts it, a “total experience.” Dense without losing immediacy, the album stretches over two hours of constantly shifting aural landscapes. This is a work to be enjoyed second by second, losing your mind to its deceptive repetitions.

KILLL

Watch insane strobe and LED effects set to Norwegian art-metal band KILLL

Featured in our book Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music along with member and über-collagist / visual artist Are Mokkelbost (who also records as Single Unit), KILLL is/was a live-only art-metal project from Oslo that must be experienced in person. Now, chances are that you haven’t been to Oslo, so you’ll have to make due with this, an excerpt recorded at the band’s final show on September 13, 2012.

Cult of Luna

Frozen in time: Cult of Luna’s eerie lament for “Passing Through” video

Cult of Luna: VertikalCult of Luna: Vertikal (Density, 1/29/13)

Swedish post-metal band Cult of Luna has made epic, sludgy soundscapes since 1998, and its brand-new album, Vertikal, is the genre at its peak.

The closing track, “Passing Through,” is a gentle, pensive finale, pondering the passage of time; its video, seen below, reflects the theme by visiting Sweden’s Säter hospital in sub-zero temperatures, presenting a snapshot of patients long since departed from what used to be the country’s largest mental hospital.