Sörskogen
Sörskogen was a Swedish progressive rock project Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and Dan Swanö started for fun. Both musicians are known for their wide musical interests. The project was supposedly named after a small community near the Stockholm suburb Huddinge where Mikael practiced with his first band Eruption in the late 1980s. At the Opeth concert on December 18, 2008, Mikael Åkerfeldt claimed to have played soccer for the Sörskogen IF soccer club. Sörskogen is heavily influenced by 1970s prog rock bands, Camel to name but one. Not much is known about the project, except a few references made by Mikael in interviews.
Only one track entitled Mordet i Grottan (The Murder in the Cave) has appeared on the net (with Mikael's permission), though a few more are rumoured to have been recorded. The vocals are sung in Swedish by Mikael. Dan Swanö played drums, bass and keyboards while Mikael Åkerfeldt played the guitar parts and provided the vocals. According to some hearsay, a music video has been created to Mordet i Grottan by Fredrik Oderfjärd but never released.
Mikael never decided to make a proper release, in spite of very professional production and promising material. Some of the ideas from Mordet i Grottan were later reworked by Mikael Åkerfeldt, who borrowed the chorus that later appeared in To Rid the Disease, a song on Opeth's album Damnation.
Rumour has it that three other tracks recorded are: Stupet (The Precipice), Den första Maj (The First of May) and Byan (Swedish slang for "The village"). Dan Swanö said himself that there were no other songs with Sörskogen than Mordet I Grottan.
Line-up
External links
- Mordet i Grottan - full song (Åkerfeldt/Swanö)
- Translation of the lyrics of Mordet i Grottan
- The lyrics and translation to Mordet i Grottan on a single page