The Great Annihilator

Their twelfth album, The Great Annihilator, is a majestic symphony of haunting melodies and shifting moods. Spirituality - or rather the absence of it - provides the linking motif. With a kinetic, industrial goose step, "She Lives" plays with chanted images of madness and martyrdom, while the jagged coda of "Celebrity Lifestyle" lays the groundwork for a cutting look at material dreams. "Warm" forms the album's thematic center, overflowing with ethereal vocal loops and drums that patter like raindrops across the lyrical landscape. On "Mother/Father" and the mantric "My Buried Child," vocalist Jarboe outdoes herself with a spectrum of darkly distinctive voices. Taken on its own, this album is a vivid example of how to combine the dissonant with the dulcet while retaining a dangerous edge. Viewed in the context of the Swans' twelve year journey from audio pornography to majestic romanticism, The Great Annihilator serves as an epic apotheosis.