Swans’ The Great Annihilator Remastered Edition

07 April, 2017
Written by Marky Edison

Swans’ remastered edition of their ninth studio album, The Great Annihilator is out on 5 May 2017 on Mute / Young God Records (N America). Their exhaustive tour continues in May and sees the band return to the UK for series of dates, ending with their final London performance in the band’s current incarnation, at the Roundhouse with very special guest Thurston Moore on 27 May, and in Manchester the following evening headlining Transformer festival on a bill that includes The Fall, Royal Trux’s first UK show in over 15 years, This Is Not This Heat, Sex Swing, Little Annie and Loop.

The Great Annihilator, originally released in 1995 and described at the time as “…a majestic symphony of haunting melodies and shifting moods” [SF Bay Guardian], will be released on double vinyl – the album’s first release on vinyl for decades - and as a 2CD set. Both the vinyl (in the form of a download code) and CD will feature Drainland, Michael Gira’s debut solo album recorded at the same time as The Great Annihilator.

The album was entirely remastered by Doug Henderson, but only after Bill Rieflin (“honorary Swan forever”) recently tracked down DATs and cassettes containing unmastered mixes from the sessions. Michael Gira describes the discovery as “a revelation of great sonic effect”. Talking about the recording, Gira said “I lived in a tent in a mosquito infested studio right next to Cabrini Green in Chicago for something like 3 months, rarely leaving. Band members and Jarboe and Bill Rieflin etc came and went, and somehow we crafted this thing into what it became.”

The Great Annihilator line up features: Michael Gira, Jarboe, Bill Rieflin, Algis Kizys, Norman Westberg, Clinton Steele and Ted Parsons.