Dan-Erland Swanö (born 10 March 1973), also known as Dan "The Man" Swanö, is a Swedish musician and record producer who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band
Nightingale, lately vocalist, keyboardist and drummer for the band
Witherscape, as well as the owner of Unisound. He achieved fame as the vocalist and songwriter of
progressive death metal band
Edge of Sanity.
As a multi-instrumentalist he is regarded as influential in the underground
melodic death metal,
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...
,
progressive metal,
death metal,
progressive rock, and
power metal communities. He is known for his progressive rock-influenced songwriting style and his frequent use of both clean and
growled vocals.
Career
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
Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup (music), supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air (in 2005) and Bloodstock Open A ...
.
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-inch EP titled ''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 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. Swanö can also be heard on the albums ''
Theli'' and ''
A'arab Zaraq – Lucid Dreaming'' by the
symphonic metal band
Therion. He was a producer and contributing writer of the band
Diabolical Masquerade, the now-defunct solo
avant-garde black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...
band of
Anders Nyström a.k.a. Blakkheim (
Katatonia,
Bloodbath
Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup (music), supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air (in 2005) and Bloodstock Open A ...
, 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 rock band Another Life, released on Vic Records.
Swanö has also released a solo
progressive death metal album entitled ''
Moontower'', on which he plays all instruments (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard) as well as providing all the vocal work.
In July 2007, he auditioned to be lead singer 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 seven 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 Vic Records. His brother Dag played guest lead guitar on the song "Gypsy", a
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.
Swanö has a diverse
vocal register, encompassing many styles, which include
death growl
The death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other Extreme metal, extreme Heavy metal genres, subgenres of heavy metal music. Sometimes death gro ...
s; clean, melodic singing with a warm tone; 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.
In December 2020 Swanö was a guest on episode 8 of the podcast "Wir und ELANE", hosted by members of the German band Elane. He spoke about several band experiences, the creation process of the first Nightingale album and the project which was called "Second Sky".
Unisound Studio
Unisound Studio (also Unisound Recordings or Gorysound Studio) is a recording studio owned and operated by Dan Swanö. It used to be in
Finspång, Sweden, but was closed down in around 2001 because of his family. The studio was later relocated into Swanö's home in
Örebro.
Family and work

Despite the large amount of releases to his name, Swanö worked full-time in a music store (''Musikbörsen'') in
Örebro, near his home in Sweden, rarely doing live performances with any of his bands. He has an older brother, Dag, who plays guitars and keyboards in
Nightingale, formerly under the name of "Tom Nouga".
Musical contributions
Discography
Miscellaneous
* Laodicea
* Manfred Villes
* Necrony – guest vocals, guitars, compositions (under the alias "Day Disyraah")
* Second Sky
* Schecht +
Akerfeldt + Swanö '98
* The Lucky Seven
*
The Project Hate MCMXCIX – producer
on ''Cybersonic Superchrist''. Mixing and Mastering on ''Deadmarch: Initiation of Blasphemy'', ''
Armageddon March Eternal – Symphonies of Slit Wrists'', ''In Hora Mortis Nostræ'', and ''
The Lustrate Process''
*
Ulan Bator
References
External links
Official Dan Swanö websiteUnisoundOfficial Odyssey MySpace pageInterview with Swanö
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swano, Dan
1973 births
Living people
Progressive metal guitarists
Swedish heavy metal bass guitarists
Swedish heavy metal drummers
Swedish heavy metal guitarists
Swedish heavy metal singers
Swedish multi-instrumentalists
Swedish death metal musicians
Bloodbath members
Steel (band) members
Star One (band) members
21st-century Swedish drummers
21st-century Swedish bass guitarists
Black Mark Production artists
People from Finspång Municipality