Sydonia Music | Official Website
Sydonia Music | Official Website
As the frontman, guitarist, and creative engine behind Sydonia, Dana emerged from Melbourne’s heavy underground and quickly became one of Australia’s most distinctive voices in modern alternative metal. Sydonia were never easy to categorise—huge, beautiful guitars collided with melodic, hook-driven vocals, while pounding, twisted drums and percussive textures gave the band a cinematic weight rarely heard in heavy music of the era.
Despite many bands claiming to be “genre-less,” few earned the kind of respect Sydonia did. Their work drew praise from luminaries such as Randy Blythe (Lamb of God) and Jim Root (Slipknot / Stone Sour)—not through marketing, but through undeniable substance.
Following a string of independently released EPs, Sydonia released their debut album Given to Destroyers in 2006 and immediately headlined a national Australian tour. The album’s impact was swift and measurable:
The following year marked a turning point. After hearing Given to Destroyers playing in an Australian record store, Randy Blythe personally invited Sydonia to tour Australia with Lamb of God, launching the band into a relentless cycle of high-profile national and international touring. Sydonia subsequently toured the Australian east coast with Stone Sour, then headed to the United States to tour with Stone Sour and Dirty Little Rabbits.
Momentum only intensified
In 2008, Sydonia toured nationally with Mammal before once again being requested to tour Australia with Slipknot and Machine Head. This was followed by further national tours with Dead Letter Circus and their own headline runs, cementing the band’s reputation as a formidable live act.
In 2010, legendary producer and mixer Colin Richardson (Slipknot, Machine Head, Fear Factory) mixed Sydonia’s single “Ocean of Storms” from their second album. That same year, Sydonia supported Korn on their Australian tour, and Randy Blythe joined the band onstage for two songs during Sydonia’s infamous Halloween “Creep Show” performance—an endorsement few Australian heavy bands ever receive.
Sydonia’s reach extended well beyond metal circles.
In 2011, the band performed across three days at the Woodford Folk Festival, playing to an audience of over 100,000 people, before touring Australia’s east coast once again.
Their 2012 EP Waiting For Words That Don’t Exist was met with rave reviews, producing standout singles “TL” and “Words,” and was followed by another extensive national tour.
In 2014, Sydonia secured international licensing with multiple tracks featured in Carsten Reimer’s cult surf film Barnacles and Stripes, and released their ambitious album Reality Kicks—a CD/DVD hybrid combining original music with unique visual footage entirely produced by the band themselves. It was a statement of independence, vision, and creative control, reinforcing Sydonia’s position as artists operating well beyond traditional band formats.
The Evolution - That history did not fade—it evolved.
Today, Dana Roskvist channels the same raw intensity, discipline, and emotional scale into cinematic composition and sound design through Glass Earth Studios. What began on global stages now powers immersive worlds across video games, film, and television.
Dana’s work doesn’t simply underscore scenes—it functions as part of the narrative’s nervous system. From stealth-driven sci-fi tension to stylised low-poly adventures, from brooding fantasy horror to emotionally charged cinematic storytelling, his compositions carry the instincts of a touring heavy musician combined with the precision of a modern composer and the restraint of a storyteller who understands momentum, silence, and impact.
Every score is sculpted with intent. Every texture serves the world it inhabits. No presets. No shortcuts. No generic sound-alikes.
Whether under the banner of Sydonia or Glass Earth Studios, Dana Roskvist creates music that moves bodies, builds worlds, and leaves scars in the best possible way.