Emerging from New York, Swans were total hardcore in its purest sense – not hardcore punk but its obverse, speed replaced by grinding, crushing megaliths of sound, societal angst replaced by claustrophobic pacts of sado-masochism, submission, punishment, rape, mutilation, torture. Far more disturbing in its totality than other releases of the same period, Swans’ words and music on Cop form a truly cohesive whole, raising transgression to a brutal art-form. This extended CD edition of Cop, released in 1992, also includes a further four tracks from the same 1984 recording sessions, which were originally issued separately on an untitled 1984 EP. A seminal work in the lineage of all uncompromising, ground-breaking music.