DAN SWANO: Moontower (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Trying to collect all the records on which Dan Swäno appears is a bit like the Pokémon. As soon as you catch one, ten more appear. Between the monstrous Edge Of Sanity (buried last summer with the majestic Crimson II), the progressive Nightingale project, the big "Old School" Death Metal of Bloodbath, Dan Swäno still finds time to work on a solo project on which he does everything, whose only (and ultimate according to him) album is this "Moontower".

Dan Swäno does absolutely everything on this album: guitars, vocals, bass, drums and keyboard and he does it very well. Except for a bass that is a bit behind, no instrument is neglected. The rhythmic is powerful and full of groove, the guitar riffs are incisive and progressive, sometimes interspersed with beautiful acoustic passages as on the instrumental 'encounterparts', and the vocals are always so powerful. It's a pity that the keyboards, even if they bring a lot on the melodic level, are so kitsch. This is perhaps the only weak point of the album.

Based on rather slow tempos, the tracks oscillate between violence and melancholy. The universe of "Moontower" is a mix of melodies like Edge Of Sanity and wild passages like Nightingale, the whole accompanied by Dan Swäno's screamed vocals. The result is a mixture of Death Metal, progressive and even Gothic Metal with catchy and easily memorable tracks.

"Moontower" is a unique album, the meticulous work of an accomplished musician whose influences seem endless. We have never heard anything like this album, but wasn't it already the case with Edge Of Sanity and Nightingale? - Official website

DAN SWANO

MOONTOWER

BLACK MARK

PROGRESSIVE METAL