Swans – Details on New Album + Live Videos for "Avatar" & "The Apostate"

Swans just finished their 2011 tour which culminated in performance at All Tomorrow Parties festival in Asbury Park, NJ.
The band is also planning to release a new (as yet untitled) studio record next year as well as a live album which will be released in a limited handmade edition via Young God Records.

Last year, scarily intense postpunk/industrial originators Swans reunited and released My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, a strong comeback album. And they’re not stopping there. According to a press release, the band is currently at work on an as-yet-untitled follow-up album. They’ve just finished the first phase of recording in Berlin and will return to the recording process in Gardinier, New York in October, after their current tour. They plan to release the album early in 2012 on frontman Michael Gira’s Young God Records.This album could turn out to be a massive undertaking. The band has been playing new material on the road lately, and some of the new songs are as long as 30 minutes. The band’s live show currently runs about two and a half hours, and the album may be a comparable length. There’s no tracklist yet, but the band has unveiled the names of some of the songs being recorded for the album: “A Piece of the Sky”, “The Apostate”, “Avatar”, “Lunacy”, “Mother of the World”, “The Daughter Brings the Water”, and “The Seer”.
Pitchfork

Check out video clips for “Avatar” and “The Apostle” – two new songs that the band performed on current tour. Latter is dedicated to Lady Gaga.
The Apostate – Live at Primavera Sound (May 28)
Avatar – Live at Babel in Malmö, Sweden (May 4)
Photo credit: Amelie Sjöstrand Gereholt