Black Metal Music To Be Performed At Cathedral In Edinburgh

August 8, 2006

Susan Mansfield of The Scotsman reports that black metal is among three types of music which will be performed on the organ at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh on August 24. The occasion will mark the first time the three music genres — northern soul, happy hardcore and black metal — will have been played consecutively on the same instrument.

Matt Stokes, 32, who won the £20,000 Becks Futures Prize in May, has his first solo show at the Collective Gallery this month as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, and has been investigating the city's organs. He says: "I was interested in the contrast between the organists and their musical background, and the members of [Edinburgh metal club] Fimbulvetr and their musical background, coming from completely opposite ends of the spectrum. I wanted to try putting them together and see what comes out of that."

"The metal was the most problematic because there's not really a strong melody, it's more about intensity," Stokes explains. "The organist had to find ways of creating big dynamic changes through the registration of the instrument. When it is being performed the organist says that he's going to the point where the instrument is literally almost running out of air."

That said, the results were remarkable. "I think the organists were surprised — I was as well — by just how well some of the music did transcribe. The black metal was the most surprising. There were certain sounds that are created with the pipe organ that just fitted the music so well."

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).