Dan Swanö

Swanö has fronted a number of bands, including Edge of Sanity, Brejn Dedd, Unicorn, Infestdead and Route Nine. He has also been a member of Katatonia and Ribspreader, as well as playing drums and lead guitar in death metal band Bloodbath.[2]

Swanö also participated in Steel, a one-off power metal project from Sweden that featured him and members of Opeth. Started in 1996, this collaboration emerged during the recording sessions for Opeth's Morningrise album. During a jam session, when the band were soundchecking the drums, they hit upon an idea to record a short piece for fun, entitled Guitars and Metal. This gave birth to Steel. Subsequently, they were asked to record more songs and when they did, the songs which were originally meant for a demo, actually appeared on a limited picture 7" EP, entitled Heavy Metal Machine released by Near Dark Productions. To this date, it remains their sole record. Featuring only two songs, Heavy Metal Machine sounds very much like a typical 1980s power metal band, with high-pitched vocals, shredding solos, pounding bass lines and even 1980s-style sound effects (police sirens, etc.). However, the record is not meant to be taken as a serious power metal attempt, explaining Swanö's extremely high-pitched vocals. As a limited release, Heavy Metal Machine remains a collectors' item and is hard to come by.

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.

in July 2007 he auditioned to lead sing for the israeli project Amaseffer but lost the part to Mats Levén

During 2009 Swanö re-activated Odyssey, this time performing all instruments by himself. Swanö recorded 7 of his all-time favourite songs which was released in November 2010 on the album 'Reinventing The Past', together with the three 1999 tracks as a bonus on Dutch based Vic Records. His brother Dag played guest lead guitar on the song 'Gypsy' (Uriah Heep cover).

In 2013, Swanö released with his new project Witherscape the full studio album The Inheritance, with Ragnar Widerberg as co-member, and the collaboration of, amongst other guest musicians, Novembers Doom's founder Paul Kuhr. It was followed a year after by the EP The New Tomorrow. In 2016, the full studio album The Northern Sanctuary was released, via Century Media Records like its predecessors, featuring once again Paul Kuhr.[3][4]

Dan 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. As a peculiarity, he is a left-handed guitarist, but plays on right-handed guitars without reversing the strings.

Dan with his brother Dag

Despite the large amount of releases to his name, Swanö up until recently worked full-time in a music store[9] (Musikbörsen) in Örebro, near his home in Sweden, rarely doing live performances with any of his bands. Dan has an older brother, Dag Swanö who plays guitars and keyboards in Nightingale, formerly under the name of "Tom Nouga".[10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dan Swanö.

• The official Dan Swanö website
• Unisound
• Official Odyssey Myspace page
• Interview with Swanö