Nightingale

Founded by versatile musician/producer Dan Swanö and subsequently joined by brother Dag Swanö (aka Tom Nouga) 30 years ago, Nightingale are proof exceptional musicianship, quality songcraft, and solid vision lead to greatness. While Dan Swanö has a storied history in Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath, Pan-Thy-Monium, Unicorn, Infestdead and more recently, prog metal darlings Witherscape, Dag's musical past goes to the early '80s, when the song-master was a primary member of rockers Original and Printz Nilssons Dagbok. The brothers are anything but prolific. Nightingale were a vehicle for them to blend progressive, AOR, gothic, and hard rock into a single sonic entity.

Nightingale's first album, The Breathing Shadow, arrived on Black Mark Production in 1995. Between Edge of Sanity albums and the hot seat of prog rockers Unicorn, Dan wanted to satisfy his goth rock interests, as evidenced by Edge of Sanity's experiments on "Sacrificed" from The Spectral Sorrows in 1993. A tapestry of well-known traits from UK mainstays The Sisters Of Mercy were successfully employed on "Nightfall Overture", "The Dreamreader", and "Gypsy Eyes". Edge of Sanity fans were so captivated that Black Mark label boss Börje "Boss" Forsberg urged Dan to rethink Nightingale as more than a one-off curio. Dan set forth to write the second chapter of "The Breathing Shadow" trilogy concept. Bookended by "Deep Inside of Nowhere" and the nine-minute epic "Alive Again", The Closing Chronicles, featuring Dag Swanö as a session player, eschewed gothic rock for AOR/hard rock. Surely, Nightingale had now aligned with bands like Marillion, Spock's Beard, and Giant. The Closing Chronicles was released on Black Mark Productions to widespread acclaim in 1996.