The Gate (Swans album)
The Gate is a 2015 limited-edition live album by American experimental rock band Swans. The album was released on October 1, 2015 on band leader Michael Gira's Young God Records. Limited to 2500 copies, the album served as a fundraiser for "The Glowing Man". Background. "The Gate" was offered in a double-CD format. The album features six live recordings, with four of them being previously unreleased tracks set to be included in the next studio album. The other two recordings are the live versions of "A Little God in My Hands" and "Just  a Little Boy," both from Swans' 2014 album, "To Be Kind". The album additionally includes five "rough, crudely recorded demos," that will be re-recorded for the upcoming album. The album also includes a DVD documentary on Swans' "To Be Kind" tour. Similar to the previous fundraising live albums, each CD copy came with a personalized cover art by the band, featuring a cardboard cover drawn by Michael Gira. Critical reception. In her review of the album for PopMatters, Natasha Gatian wrote, "It lacks some of the momentum and surprise of Swans’ studio work, but then, that’s one of  the possible pitfalls of a live album. Diehards will appreciate hearing Swans in the wild, but casual fans might be better off sticking with album cuts before crossing "The Gate"’s imposing threshold."