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Originally Posted by the ikara cult
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Im not a musician, but the difference between the two is the extent of the variation in the music. When Tool decide to "switch it up a gear" it comes in the form of SLIGHTLY LOUDER GUITARS. When Tool want to introuce some tension, it comes from GUITARS GETTING SLIGHTLY QUIETER BEFORE BECOMING SLIGHTLY LOUDER AGAIN (side note, this is the same reason I dont like Mogwai Fear Satan, but thats another thread)
With Swans, all of the shifts occur below the surface, they only become apparent to you after theyve happened. It appears to be plodding along fairly consistently, but then a nanosecond later you realise something is different, something has changed. And thats not even taking into account Gira's vocals. Or the way they introduce force and volume (yes, their earlier work is all force and volume, but im referring to their reformed incarnation).
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Not a big fan of new Swans or Tool of any period. But to articulate the above slightly differently - Tool's variations are more to do with syncopation, nuance - all fairly small but very much in keeping with the world they come from. (Prog) rock. There's some bits around 4.55 in that Tool song where the whole band are doing variations, rhythmic ones, which slowly shift away from the main motif before making the re-emphasis more 'jarring' (in a sense) but not because they never left it. It's a trick that only really works with some good musicians. Always the problem I've had with Tool is that I can't say anything other than that they're good musicians. Swans have always operated with a kind of brutal minimalism - 2 or 3 note melodies, minimal variation, no signifiers of being 'musicianly'. This hasn't really changed. But these two tracks aren't so very different. The thing is that rock music has so very little in it that incredibly small moderations unleash legions of difference; or rather, the master differences, the overwhelming semiotic, is cultural context. Musicology doesn't really have much to say for or to rock music. [Funnily enough, I've been returning to SY a bit of late on this basis].
I never really got why Neurosis get compared to Swans; superficially, there's so much that's similar, but for me Swans never played the 'metal' game; Neurosis don't sound radically different to Metallica, in those terms, for me. Tool I can see more similarity, but their rationale always feels like 'doing' prog without leaving 80s/ 90s metal 'proper'. So they sneak their prog tendencies in under the cloaks of rhythmic variation (never straying too far from 'the beat' and never that I've heard into the realm of swing or slur), fill and extended motifs. Beats are never dropped, rests are rarely used and the riff is always central.
In that sense I've got less to say about Swans. There's almost no point talking about them in musical terms. Not a lot happens. So it kind of either clicks or it doesn't. They're much more about drilling something home than showing any signs of musicality. For me the interest has more been in the lyrics - particularly Children of God, one of my all-time blah albums. Not much happens in the music; not much happens in the lyrics, but they're very well chosen. Occupations on an emotional moment with rarely much in the way of compass or narrative. Again, it either works or it doesn't but I do feel they do a small gesture which moves them away from the world of metal, in spite of apparent proximity - there's no 'them' and 'us' to Gira's lyrical world. Brutalist and barren but never quite spiteful or hateful.
Mmm. Yeah, those are some words.