Sacrifice and Transcendence

Sacrifice And Transcendence: The Oral History of Swans is the first book to capture the chaotic rise of Michael Gira’s band to become one of the most acclaimed rock acts of recent decades. For the first time, Gira has lent his support and approval to a text providing the first comprehensive and honest account of the infamous "loudest band on the planet" from their origins in the aftermath of New York City’s No Wave scene to their exhausted collapse in the late 1990s, and on to their surprising and triumphant return in 2010, which saw the band top end-of-year polls and achieve their highest ever sales, and brought Swans a feted status among fans and critics alike as the great survivors and latter-day statesmen of the underground scene.

Through these pages, the musicians responsible for creating the controversial and extreme music and image of Swans tell the tale of one of the most significant bands of the US post-punk era, cited as an inspiration by everyone from Metallica, to Kurt Cobain, to the entire post-punk and drone metal genre that has grown up in Swans’ wake.

The book coincides with the disbandment of the current Swans lineup and the molding of a new iteration of Swans set to arrive in 2018 as Gira seeks to redefine the band’s sound once again. It dwells on Gira’s desire to create music of such intensity that a listener might get rid of their body, forget their flesh, and exist as pure energy, transcendent, inside the sound.