What a con-artist Swans leader, Michael Gira is. After creating the greatest achievement in rock the last decade, the monolithic, gargantuan trilogy of, The Seer, To be Kind and The Glowing Man, he promised us he was done with these planet sized two hour behemouths and that Swans would enter a new phase of very different music. Well, they did for two albums, but he's right back into it with Birthing, another two-hour, widescreen apocalypse - and a hugely worthy addition to the now quadrilogy. And given how much fun they sound like they're having this time out, a great choice for my first Swans album for the terrified and uninitiated.