In retrospect, 2012 was a particularly stellar year for music. Frank Ocean (channel ORANGE) and Kendrick Lamar (g.o.o.d kid m.A.A.d city) each dropped their respective masterpieces that permanently cemented them as modern classicists amongst critics and fans. Meanwhile, Death Grips’ The Money Store showed the group mastering their demented take on abstract hip-hop, Flying Lotus provided his most nuanced and hypnagogic release to date with Until The Quiet Comes, and Tame Impala proved that there was strange beauty in loneliness with Lonerism. However, one album stood out like a black sheep because while it was inaccessible to most mainstream music listeners, it was ambitious as it was gravely terrifying and ugly. This album is The Seer; New York experimental group Swans’ near masterpiece and and a classic that was considered by many to be the biggest comeback of the year. This album is indeed one of the finest works in the groups catalog as well as a roughly 2 hour post rock hell trip and endurance test through sheer brutality, meditative repetition, and catharsis.

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