Dan Swanö

Dan Swanö

Dan Swanö (born March 10, 1973, in Finspång, Sweden), is a Swedish music producer, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, drummer and keyboardist, regarded as influential in the underground death metal, progressive metal, and progressive rock communities.

Music

Swanö has fronted a number of bands, most notably Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Pan.Thy.Monium, Brejn Dedd, Unicorn, Infestdead and Route Nine. He has also been a member of Katatonia, Ribspreader, as well as playing drums and lead guitar in death metal band Bloodbath.

He has also contributed his vocal talents to Arjen Lucassen's Star One project. The two musicians are good friends, with Lucassen contributing guitar parts to Swanö's Nightingale project. He can also be heard on the albums Theli and A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming by the symphonic opera metal band Therion. He was also producer and contributing writer of the band Diabolical Masquerade, the now defunct solo avant-garde black metal band of Anders Nyström aka Blakkheim (Katatonia, Bloodbath, ex-Bewitched). He also contributed some guitar solos, backing vocals on various Diabolical Masquerade albums, and played the drums on the album Nightwork. He also produced and played the keyboards on the Memories from Nothing album by Swedish progressive rockers Another Life, released on Vic Records.

Swanö has also released a solo progressive death metal album entitled Moontower, on which he showcases his multi-instrumental talent, playing all instruments (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard) as well as providing all the vocal work.

Swanö has a diverse vocal register, encompassing many styles, which include death growls; clean, melodic singing with a warm rich tone; deep, dark, gothic vocals and thrash shouting.

Family and work

Swanö with his brother Dag

Despite the large amount of releases to his name, Swanö still works as chief sales assistant in a music store (Musikbörsen) in Örebro, near his home in Sweden, rarely doing live performances with any of his bands (it has been said that one of the main reasons for this is that he is unable to sustain the heavy growling death metal vocals used in many of his bands for any prolonged period of time). He has his own studio in his home, variously called first Gorysound then Unisound, where he records his own projects as well as the music of other notable bands such as Marduk, Dark Funeral, Merciless, Dawn, Dissection, Opeth and Katatonia. He is currently divorced, but maintains close ties to his family. His elder brother Dag Swanö was in Pan.Thy.Monium under the pseudonym Äag and is a member of Nightingale under the name of Tom Nouga.

Musical contributions

• Aeon - Production on Rise to Dominate
• Altar - Keyboards, backing vocals
• Ancient - production, mixing and engineering on The Cainian Chronicle
• Argentum - Guitar, Vocals
• As Light Dies - Producer Ars Suptilior from within the cage
• Attention
• Another Life - Drums, Keyboards, guitar solo
• Battlelore - Mix and Mastering on the album The last alliance
• Bloodbath - Drums (1998-2004), Guitar (2004-2006)
• Brejn Dedd - Drums, vocals
• Canopy - Guest vocals, guitar
• Coldworker - Producer
• Cronian - Mastering on the album Terra
• Dan Swanö - Vocals, all instruments
• Darkcide - Guitar, Bass, Vocals
• Demiurg - Lead Guitar
• Diabolical Masquerade - Drums (on Nightwork), guest guitar solos, producer, heavy metal vocal (on "The Phantom Lodge" 7th track - Hater)
• Dissection - Engineered The Somberlain
• Edge of Sanity - Vocals, guitar, Keyboards (old), all instruments (current)
• Evocation - Guest Vocals on album Dead Calm Chaos
• Evoke - Producer (Dreaming The Reality)
• Fall Of Serenity - Production on The Crossfire
• Frameshift - Vocals
• Godsend - Vocals, Keyboards
• Gorath - Mastering on the album "Misotheism"
• Ghost - Drums
• Ghostorm - Vocals on song "Legend"
• Hail of Bullets - Producer, Guest Vocals on album "....Of Frost and War"
• Hallows Die - Mastering on the album "World of Ruin"
• Incision
• Infestdead - Guitars, bass, drum programming
• Karaboudjan - Vocals, all instruments
• Katatonia - Drums, Keyboards, Vocals
• Laodicea
• Lay Down Rotten - Mixing, Mastering, and guest vocals
• Maceration - Vocals, Keyboards, Piano (under the alias "Day Disyraah")
• Mahlstrøm - Guest vocals
• Manfred Villes
• Marduk - Producer
• Masticate - Guitar, bass, vocals
• M.E.S.S - Mixing and Mastering the album "Weekend Ritual Massacre"
• Millencolin - Production on For Monkeys
• Moredhel - Production on Metamorphose
• Mörk Gryning - Producer
• Nasum - Producer, mastering
• Necrony - Guest Vocals, Guitars, Composer (under the alias "Day Disyraah")
• Nightingale - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
• Novembre - Producer
• Novembers Doom - Mixed The Pale Haunt Departure, The Novella Reservoir and Into Night's Requiem Infernal, and contributed a guitar solo on the song "Dark World Burden" on the album The Pale Haunt Departure
• O (The Circle)
• Odyssey - Vocals, Drums, Keyboards
• Omnium Gatherum - Producer
• Opeth - Producer
• Outcome
• Overflash - Drums
• Pain - Additional Engineering on Nothing Remains The Same
• Pan.Thy.Monium - Bass, Keyboards, effects (under the alias "Day Disyraah")
• Ribspreader - Guitar, Drums
• Route Nine - Vocals, guitar, bass, Keyboards
• Second Sky
• Schecht + Akerfeldt + Swanö '98
• Sörskogen - Drums, bass, Keyboards
• Star One - Guest vocals
• Steel - vocals
• Stygg Dödd
• Subway Mirror
• The Lucky Seven
• The Project Hate MCMXCIX - Producer
• Theatre of Tragedy - Producer
• Therion - Guest Vocals
• Threshold - Guest vocals
• Total Terror - Guitar, vocals
• Torture Division - Producer
• Ulan Bator
• Uncanny - Engineered
• Under Black Clouds
• Unicorn - Vocals, Drums, Session Bass, Session Saxophone
• Vinterland - Producer, Keyboards
• Winds - Guest Vocals (Prominence and Demise, 2007)
• Wounded Knee - Producer

Discography

With Unicorn

• Ever Since (1993)
• Emotional Wasteland (1995)

With Edge of Sanity

• Nothing But Death Remains (1991)
• Unorthodox (1992)
• The Spectral Sorrows (1993)
• Purgatory Afterglow (1994)
• Crimson (1996)
• Infernal (1997)
• Crimson II (2003)

With Diabolical Masquerade

• Nightwork (1998)
• Death's Design (2001)

With Bloodbath

• Breeding Death (2000)
• Resurrection Through Carnage (2002)
• Nightmares Made Flesh (2005)
• The Wacken Carnage (Live) (2008)

With Pan.Thy.Monium

• Dawn of Dreams (1992)
• Khaooohs (1993)
• Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion (1996)

With Nightingale

• The Breathing Shadow (1995)
• The Closing Chronicles (1996)
• I (2000)
• Alive Again (2003)
• Invisible (2004)
• White Darkness (2007)

With Infestdead

• Killing Christ (1996)
• Hellfuck (1997)
• JesuSatan (1999)

With Godsend

• A Wayfarers Tears (1997)

With Katatonia

• Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival (1992)
• Dance of December Souls (1993)
• Tonight's Decision (1999)

With Karaboudjan

• Sbrodj (2001)

Solo

• Moontower (1998)
• Odyssey (1999)

External links

• Official Website
• Unisound
• Interview with Swanö