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 bandBloodbath. 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. 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 as well as providing all the vocal work. 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'. In 2013, Swanö released with his new project Witherscape the full studio albumThe 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 EPThe New Tomorrow. In 2016, the full studio albumThe Northern Sanctuary was released, via Century Media Records like its predecessors, featuring once again Paul Kuhr. 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, which is quite unusual.
Unisound Studio
Unisound Studio is a recording studioowned 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, Sweden.
Family and work
Despite the large amount of releases to his name, Swanö up until recently worked full-time in a music store 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".
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
