Customer Reviews

Public Castration Is a Good Idea

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Swans ATE your band over 20 years ago. Seriously, this is the "test" record. While Swans were always great on studio albums, nothing compares to the absolute primal, primordial beauty on display here. I can honestly say that when I first heard this record about 8 years ago, I instantly decided that metal was dead. So much darker than metal, so intense that it's nearly painful to listen to. Put it on and watch as your so-called "friends" flee in disgust. An important document of brutal truth from the beginning of time.

If you listen to this CD without any background or knowledge of the swans, one thought will most likely dominate your mind, the rituals killing of farm animals. It turns out that M Gira is not a Satanist to the dismay of some but an artist exploring an extremely raw grinding repetitious sound. This is a live album with only 8 tracks but those 8 tracks fill over 70 minutes and the quality is great. The live versions are far more affective than the studio material and M Gira's voice is at its most sinister. This may not be a swans jumping in point but it's not just for the swans enthusiast ether.

Swans are the greatest band you've probably never heard of. Together for roughly 13 years, Swans made music that, over time, intelligently evolved from hunks of primal brutality to compositions of subtle beauty.

Public Castration is a live document that captures the 1986 version of the band at it's raw, howling best. While it's not the most pristine of recordings, the grubby, oxidized sound nearly suits the mood and music perfectly. From the slow grind of "Money Is Flesh" to the closing noise punishment of "Another You," it's easy to see how the early period of Swans was the complete blueprint for countless bands including Godflesh and Skin Chamber.

This recording is stark and pummeling, focusing on the roaring voice of Michael Gira. I've read where Gira has said that live Swans song versions got to the point of being so slow that he could nearly smoke a whole cigarette between notes. That's the feel on Public Castration.

This one's the type of recording that you can play for all your friends who supposedly like "heavy" music and see their true colors. Public Castration is a bleak, rumbling disc, capturing the early colossal grace of the most powerful band of all time.

Swans never fell safely into any of the popular idioms, from no wave to industrial to post-punk, so they managed to be completely genuine in their aching dejection. A lot of people say this live document "doesn't sound like music" (or isn't) and laugh when they hear it, and that's because as art it reaches deeper than most people even have within them. Every aspect of the music is concussive in nature, from the tape loops to guitars to wind instruments to the blunt trauma drums. These minimalist rhythmic excursions are naked and oppressive simultaneously without any sense of contradiction. It's easier to observe the pure tristesse from a noncommittal outsider role, but it's impossible; you'll crawl inside this exhausting album or it will repulse you.

This album perfectly exemplifies the intensity and catharsis of the second period SWANS live performances. It is punishing, horrifying, genuinely evil noise; the same simple chords repeated over and over again while Gira screams, grunts, and wails on top of it. On first listen you're likely to be very put off but once it gets inside of you it doesn't let go. This music will purge you of violent energy. Listen to it loud and you will feel it's cathartic effects. I'M A COWARD, PUT YOUR KNIFE IN ME. I'M USELESS, WORTHLESS, USELESS, WORTHLESS. There's nothing like it, it's pure, unflitered negativity captured and by the act of listening to it you'll feel as if you've gotten it out of your system. Why did I give it 4 stars? Because compared to the other live disc of the same era, Real Love it isn't nearly as good. The recording quality is inferior and in my opinion the performances aren't quite as good either. So 5 stars for Real Love, 4 for Public Castration. Check out Kill the Child and Feel Good Now for Children of God era live SWANS. Also for those who don't know, SWANS live and SWANS studio are seperate entities and are barely comparable.

So much bad pop music now feigns despair because of the influence of Trent Reznor who, for some reason, laid his empty soul bare and tapped into the lowest common denominator of unintelligent angst. The Swans are the despair with intelligence. They are Clive Barker to NiN's Roger Corman or Marilyn Manson's Ed Wood. In this album they take music to a level that is to be endured and that will strengthen you. I heard "Anything for You" in my brother's car in 6th grade and instantly was awestruck by the Swans. Like an excruciatingly slow and articulate Zeni Geva, this album shows that true art does not have to be beautiful, or at least that beauty does not have to be painless.

this makes swans studio records sound like lullabyes, and considering they are not easily listening by any stretch of the imagination, i'd say get this only if your not worried about your eardrums being damaged. a masterpiece of pure industrial power that captures swans at the peak of their harshest period.

I guess the title says it all. The Swans live were quite something back then. It remains as usual somewhat too intense to listen at home for an hour or so but the plaing is still something to be heard.

This is a truly captivating blast of pure percussive noise. A portrait of SWANS at their most industrial point, a must have for anyone who thinks they are "hardcore". The end of "A Hanging" where the percussion and Gira's delayed vocals take over is sublime. I repeat, if you think you like "heavy" or "loud" or "noisy" music, get this CD and give up.

This is some serious self mutilating music! If you're one of these teens who take razors to your upper extremeties, this is your soundtrack! It might even do for those lower extremity iconoclasts!
Dirge me bud!

Sound out!!

Oh there's a piano? Scuse me. It was just a vampire!!