The sounds that one associates with places of worship are those of an angelic choir or the intricate patterns of a Bach fugue. Some churches have, however, been enjoying success with the rather more unexpected pairing of doom metal bands and church organs.
The aptly named David Pipe, Cathedral Organist in the Diocese of Leeds and Assistant Director of Music at York Minster, has been instrumental in bringing the two together because, as well as being the founding Artistic Director of the Leeds International Organ Festival, he has invented a new genre of rock and organ music which he calls Organic Doom.
Pipe performed on an 1860 ‘Father’ Willis organ at a recent gig to the music of Pantheïst (a ‘funeral doom band’ whose lead singer wears a cassock) and Arð (whose album Take Up My Bones is about the translation of St Cuthbert’s remains from Lindisfarne to Durham Cathedral). When the gig was featured on Radio 4’s Sunday Worship programme, churches and cathedrals around the UK got in touch to invite them to repeat the performance.
