Since reforming in 2010, Swans have made a habit of testing the patience of their audience in pursuit of transcendence, often rewarding that perseverance with profound and overpowering listening experiences. Birthing, a two-hour album with an average track length of about 16-and-a-half minutes, continues that tradition but is even slower, heavier, and more ominous. If the band’s previous two albums, 2019’s Leaving Meaning and 2023’s The Beggar, felt introspective and somewhat muted despite their sense of baroque grandeur, Birthing reaches outward, as if toward the stars, aiming for something far more cosmic.
An almost cultic energy pulses through the album, and it’s not just because of Michael Gira’s weathered incantations or prophetic…