One of the few acts to emerge from the New York City-based no wave scene and stay intact into the next decade, Swans have become recognized for an ever-changing sound, exploring genres such as noise rock, post-punk, industrial and post-rock.

In 2010, Gira re-formed the band without Jarboe, establishing a stable lineup of musicians which has toured worldwide and released four albums to critical acclaim.

[4][5] Tessler also played metal percussion and tape loops in another variation of the line-up with Gira on bass, Moore on guitar, and Kane on drums.

[6] However, the minimal chord structures owe more to blues, while the jazz instrumentation and awkward time signatures are evidence of Swans' roots in the no wave scene of the late 1970s,[6] which had more or less collapsed by the release of 1984's Cop.

Their early music was typified by slow and grinding guitar noise, and pounding drums, punctuated by Gira's morbid and violent lyrics (inspired by Jean Genet and Marquis de Sade), usually barked or shouted.

[4] Some of the songs on the EP, particularly "Young God" and "I Crawled", have an actual vocal melody, if rudimentary, hinting at the sounds of future releases.

[4] Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick shared this impression of the group: The Slave EP was a sound that I always wanted to hear, just the bleakest and blackest.

[12]One of the trademarks of Swans' early period was playing at painfully loud volumes during concerts, sometimes leading to police stopping shows.

New bassist Algis Kizys would become a long-time, near-constant member, as would new vocalist/keyboardist Jarboe (who had joined the band a month before the release of the 1985 "Time Is Money (Bastard)" 12-inch, on which she had been credited simply with "scream").

Greed was followed by its "twin" album, Holy Money, the first to feature Jarboe contributing lead vocals (on "You Need Me") Her presence began a slow thawing in the overt brutality and energy of Swans' early work, while Holy Money was also the first album by the group to incorporate acoustic elements: in particular, the eight-minute dirge "Another You", which starts with a bluesy harmonica introduction.

It also marks the introduction of religious themes in Swans records with the sacrificial ode "A Hanging", complete with gospel-like backing vocals from Jarboe.

Children of God (1987) further expanded Jarboe's role, acting as a foil to Michael Gira's tales of suffering, torture and humiliation.

Gira considers this to be the band's major turning point, saying by 1986/7 Swans "had run its course with the physical assault of sound that they had employed previously for the most part.

[17] After the Children of God album, Gira professed himself tired with the band's fearsome reputation for noise, feeling that their audience now had expectations that he had no intention of fulfilling.

He made a conscious decision to tone down the band's sound, introducing more acoustic elements and increasingly emphasizing Jarboe as a singer.

The band continued this transformation with an unexpected cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", which was released as a single in 1988 on Product Inc. in a confusing array of 7" and 12" inch formats.

Gira's lyrics still favored themes of depression, death, greed and despair, but were actually sung, rather than the chanting or shouting typical of earlier material.

They even covered Steve Winwood's popular Blind Faith hit "Can't Find My Way Home", one of two singles from the LP.

Gira's disillusionment with their Uni/MCA exploits led to White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991), a successful blending of earlier hard rock and later pop styles.

Soundtracks for the Blind (1996) was a two-disc album featuring Jarboe-supplied field recordings, experimental music, dark ambient soundscapes, post-industrial epics, post-rock suites and acoustic guitar.

In the middle of performing the song The Provider onstage utilizing "large chords that were very sustained and swaying, in this sort of slave-ship rhythm," he felt "a nascent urge right then to re-form or reinvigorate Swans because I remembered how elevating and intense that experience was".

The first post-reformation Swans album, My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky, was released on September 23, 2010, and the band simultaneously embarked on an eighteen-month world tour.

in Utrecht, The Netherlands, including Wire, Silver Apples, Ben Frost, Prurient and Words to the Blind, a project by Savages together with Japanese band Bo Ningen.

"Swans' music has transformed greatly over the decades, but is typically dark[48][49] and "apocalyptic",[50] often focusing on themes of power, religion, sex and death,[51] and has been most generally associated with experimental rock.

[52][53] According to Spin, the band demonstrates "unparalleled ability to translate the absurd violence of the human condition into music that’s as intoxicating as it is intense.

"[54] Their early work, rooted in the New York City-based no wave movement which was fading out by the time of their formation in 1982,[55] is extremely aggressive, characterized by Michael Gira as "stripping down the essential elements of what we consider to be rock music".

[56] The Guardian described it as "a cacophonous rhythmic throb which drew on post-punk, industrial, doom metal, NYC avant minimalism and the blues; a sound which was matched by Gira's often nihilistic, anti-natalist and existential lyrical concerns ... delivered in a stentorian and messianic manner.

[63] The double albums from the latest years, which have brought them widespread critical acclaim, often feature long songs that develop complex soundscapes.

[67] Swans have been cited as an influence by a variety of rock and extreme metal musicians, including members of Napalm Death,[68] Godflesh,[69] Melvins,[70] Neurosis,[71] Treponem Pal,[72] Nirvana,[73] Tool,[74] My Dying Bride,[75] Isis,[76] Weakling,[77] Leviathan,[78] Natural Snow Buildings,[79] Khanate,[80] Liturgy,[81] Vision Eternel,[82][83] Car Seat Headrest,[84] Full of Hell,[85] and Sprain.