AS THE SHADOWS FALL

The list of bands fronted by Dan Swanö is endless. There's Edge of Sanity, Pan.Thy.Monium, and Nightingale, but also many other artists where he either featured as a guest, or at the production helm or in a prominent role as drummer or vocalist: Therion, Katatonia, Opeth, and many lesser known gods of Scandinavian metal. Yes, in the 90's, there was no way avoiding the ever present genius of mr. Swanö.

One of the more obscure bands he worked with was Godsend, for which he did the vocals on two albums. This Godsend project never reached a level of brilliance for me, but in combining melodic doom, goth and progressive elements, the band was quite a unique star in the northern sky and their debut album is very strong all the way through. The album is also noteworthy for me as it was the first album where Swanö used his clean vocals all the way through. They are not as confident yet as on the Nightingale debut, he often opts for a very deep bass register that is quite impressive and eerie but that lacks the more natural warmth he later developed. But it suits the music fine.

Depending on the individual track, the album often sounds like Pentagram (Slaydream, With The Wind) or Candlemass (Autumn Leaves). At other times, as on the slow funeral doom trudge of the title track, it's like early Anathema with clean vocals. Then again, a more prog-oriented influence of Solitude Aeturnus shines through and there's even some prog-folk on Walking The Roads where Swanö's love for Marillion clearly shows, this short tune is almost as charming and cheerful as Childhood's End / White Feather.

You got it, this is a must for fans of the melodic doom of Candlemass, Paradise Lost, Solitude Aeturnus, Pentagram and all the others. It never reaches the top level of those bands but it often comes close. Swanö's vocals more then make up for its shortcomings. 4 metal stars, 3.5 prog stars so I'll leave it at 3.