Swans are complex, surreal, terrifying, intense, beautiful. . . Their music and lyrics, more than any other band, consistently sends tremors through my entire being. This is bone-chilling, soul-crushing music. It will leave you haunted, yet mesmerized. Listen to it, feel it ripple through you, feel it tear you apart, feel it simultaneously destroy and save you. . .This band has taken music to a place, a dimension, that no other band has had the courage, the passion, or the calling to undertake. Swans preserve music as a form of art. They make music because they need to make music. They are unafraid of being different, unafraid of experimenting and pushing music to extreme boundaries. . .Too many modern bands exist for profit - they become nothing more than formulaic, cookie-cutter bands that have lost their sense of style. They feel that they must conform to the preferences of the mainstream in order to feel accepted in a society that hungers for fame and profit. . . and yet the loss is great: Musical talent suffers and variety becomes a rare gem. This is not so with Swans. I commend them on their courage to create music that will not be embraced by the general public.This is the music of nightmares. It will never cease to make you think. This is music to read Dostoevsky, Kafka, Sartre, and Hamsun to. Live by it. Let Swans take over.