By DCist contributing writer Sean Gray

I’m never a believer in reunions. Ninety-five percent of the time, those bands broke up for good reason, and should probably stay that way. (I’m sure seeing the Pixies was as exciting as watching the Redskins play last season).

But Swans is one of the few bands that, after hearing The Seer, is tough to imagine never getting back together. It took 14 years for the band’s founder, Michael Gira, to resurrect Swans, in that amount of time as you’d expect of a band with the kind of history Swans has, a reunion didn’t seem out of the question. But would new recordings add anything to the Swans discography that they didn’t cover before? This band has covered all kinds of terrain, from Noise, to industrial, to ambient, and beyond. The last two LPs though have answered that question

The Seer is a dense, two-hour epic .You could say the 2010 LP My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, is a primer for this album. My Father seemed to combine elements of Gira’s other project, Angels of Light, which showed off a dark, folky side that was less abrasive than his normal output.

The Seer kicks off with “Lunacy” which builds with chants, chimes and a warlike drum beat until it floats back to earth. “Mother of the World” begins like Swans’ earlierst work with its constant pounding and heavy-breathing vocals, but halfway through it shrinks into a lullaby.

At 34 minutes, the title track is an endurance test that throws in everything Swans have ever attempted—jagged noise, industrial, even a touch of krautrock. For some, a song like “The Seer” might be overkill.

While the first disc is a bit easier to listen to, the second is even more abrasive and demands attention. It begins with “Song For A Warrior”, which has vocals from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O. The song makes you think of a send off if you will with it’s country like tendencies, and sets the scene for what might be a more easy listening experience on the second half. Though that ends pretty quickly with songs like “A Piece of the Sky”. The first nine minutes of that are a blissed-out drone ambient intro that would make a guy like Tim Hecker jealous.

The Seer is an album that might easily be disregarded by some as too long. I too find my self struggling to really get a proper feel for the full two-hour experience. And while it isn’t a seamless record (some of the songs can be jarring in their pace), this is the most complete Swans album to date, and if anything underscores why a band like Swans is far from over.

Swans play Friday, October 19 at the Black Cat (1811 14th Street NW) with A Hack & Hacksaw. Tickets $20.