To those music lovers at home in the world of Progressive Death Metal, the Swede Dan Swanö will be somewhat of a legend, known in the first place from his fronting role as lead singer/ bassist in the bands/ projects Edge Of Sanity, Nightingale (where he was the drummer), and Bloodbath (where he handles both drums and guitar.
Those in the know will also remember his collaboration to Arjen Lucassen's Star One project (the musicians being good friends resulting in Lucassen contributing guitar to Nightingale), and may even have come across Dan's solo album Moontower. But he's also been a member (sometimes under the monickers of either Day DiSyraah, or Kill) of quite some other bands : (in alphabetical order, as known to yours truly) Brejn Dedd, Darkified, Demiurg, Godsend, Kadaboudjan, Katatonia, Masticate, Odyssey, Omnium Gathering, Pan.Thy.Monium, Ribspreader, Sörgskogen, Steel, and Total Terror. On top of that, he's been producer for a shit-load of beginning and more internationally known acts bands (the latter including Asphyx, Diabolical Masquerade, Dissection, Katatonia and Opeth, to name but a few), and frequently contributed to those albums as musician and/ or singer. The list of albums on which he is featured (also as guest on Therion's albums Theli and A'arab Zaraq – Lucid Dreaming) is therefore quite a comprehensive one (and can be found almost complete, but not quite, at the artist's Wikipedia page). In spite of the man's worksheet, which goes back to the early '90s, he's had to keep a dayjob until recently, working at a music store. It's where he met and became friends with his colleague and multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Widerberg, and where the idea to do something together sometime was borne.
Early on, the two had agreed on a concept for their work. The story takes place in the late 19th Century, and the central character of the story is man born into a rich family. Upon the death of his parents he is informed by the family lawyer that he's inherited a large estate and, having been ignorant about it before, he decides to go and investigate...and that's when/ where all kinds of weird shit happens! Knowing that he could never successfully write the lyrics to such a grand design, Dan decided to get in touch with his friend Paul Kuh (whom he knows from having produced all of the latter's band, Novembers Doom), and handed him over a scratch book of lyrics for eight songs, with an outline of the story line on the side. With the lyrics work done (quite admirably good, too...by the way, he also wrote the story in more detail, to explain what's goin' on song-by-song – you can find that in the booklet of the special edition of the album) Dan and Ragnar secluded themselves into a studio, and got to recording, with Dan taking care of the vocals, keyboards (including some piano work) and drums, and Ragnar handling all bass and guitar.
With the afterthought of wanting to make the album as epic as possible, Dan was originally tempted to kind of over-produce the album, drowning everything in multiple overdubs, reverbs and delays. But then, as he was sitting behind the drums in the studio while listening to just one guitar, he realised that the music was already epic in its own right, by sheer force of composition and style! What's that mean? Expect a modern Metal with changing moods and intensities, with great lead and solo guitar parts (the latter obviously in overdub) both in the heavier and in the calmer moments...where the keyboards occasionally take over the lead part. Stylistically, one can speak of a Melodic Metal with basic epic Hard Rock foundations, and elements of Death and Progressive. Vocally, Dan pulls open all the registers to his capable disposition, alternating from cleaner vocals to more aggressive (say...Thrash?), over Blackened “screams” to guttural growls...occasionally in overdub, which enhances the vocal beauty of the album overall! For your exploratory pleasure of the Witherscape sound, you can find 3 “videos” (two of which are with music of the songs “Astrid Falls” and “Dead For A Day”, the third is Dan explaining the CD's enhancements) at the band's own (www.) witherscape.com (actually, after some further search at the end of those videos, you can find extra material, including one with Dan explaining the album track-by-track, an interview with him on the project, and music to the song “Math Of The Myth” - I also found a “video” for the track “Last Rose Of Summer” credited to Witherscape...but that song is actually not part of the album).
With a total playing time of almost 44 minutes, the 8 songs and short instrumental title track outro provide a wonderful album for people into the darker sides of Metal. As mentioned earlier, the album also came in a special edition with enhanced booklet, but there's also a vinyl version of the album, which Dan gave an alternate mixing, in order to maintain the sound which can be found on the CD! Great stuff, this, the kind of thing I could listen to for hours on end, day in, day out...if it wasn't for the fact that I still have a shitload of other albums waiting my critical appraisal!