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. 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 collector's 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 band of Anders Nyström a.k.a. 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 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 growls; 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==