Pantheist at Organic Doom Vol 1, Huddersfield Town Hall (FULL CONCERT)

Описание

ORDER ‘KINGS MUST DIE’ EP here: https://pantheistuk.bandcamp.com/album/kings-must-die

Performed at Huddersfield Town Hall, Organic Doom Vol I on the 12th June 2023. Audio recorded, mixed and mastered by Mark Mynett. Video edited by Tiberiu Lefterache.

Performed on this recording:
Atanas Kyurkchiev (guitar)
Fanel Lefterache (drums)
Kostas Panagiotou (vocals, keyboards)
Matt Strangis (bass)

Samples on 'Strange Times' by Jeremy Lewis and Andrei Oltean.

Pipe organ performed by David Pipe.

THE UNLIKELY MARRIAGE OF A DOOM METAL BAND WITH A LIVE PIPE ORGANIST
Since our ‘1000 years’ demo, pipe organ sounds have been central to the vibe of Pantheïst. I remember how back in 2001, in a letter correspondence with a German fan (yes, we are that old) he suggested that we should continue using ‘church organ sounds like the godfathers of funeral doom, Skepticism’.

This is exactly what we did in the years that followed, and pipe organs remained integral to the band’s sound, inspired by Skepticism as well as baroque composers such as J.S. Bach. 22 years later, we finally got the first opportunity to perform some of these tracks with an actual
pipe organ!

It all started with a local drive to promote Huddersfield Town Hall’s pipe organ as a versatile instrument which can give depth and volume to many musical genres, of which doom metal is naturally one due to its slow tempo and emphasis on heaviness. Mark Deeks from Northumbrian monastic doomsters Arð invited us as support to the event and the rest, as they say, is history.

Preparing for the gig was an interesting experience. To start with, I had to write scores of the pipe organ parts for the organist, something I’m not accustomed to. Then we rehearsed while ‘imagining’ the organ parts, as the organist David Pipe (what’s in a name…) was based four hours away and naturally couldn’t join us for rehearsals.

The gig took place on a Monday evening- most unusual day for an event in a town not renowned for doom metal performances. We arrived Monday morning at Huddersfield Town Hall and were greeted by a loud buzzing sound of the monitoring system, with Mark Mynett (Professor at Huddersfield Uni, formerly of Kill II This and producer of the last two My Dying Bride albums) trying to tame the different aspects of such a massive enterprise: marrying up the electric sound of two doom metal bands with a pipe organ! Due to all the details that had to be taken care of as part of this monumental task, Pantheïst could only manage a 10-minute soundcheck, which took place 10 minutes before the opening of the doors to 300 people, among which the legendary Arthur Brown (no pressure there…)

We managed to practice half a track by that point, keeping in mind we still hadn’t heard all of the parts due to be performed by the organist!
We had to overcome other last-minute challenges, and I was particularly stressed as I was playing sets with both bands. We had to cross our fingers for what the organist was going to play and how everything was going to sound together. Luckily the professionalism of both Mark Mynett and David Pipe shone through at the right moment. In front of 300 people, both doom metal bands put on an excellent performance and the response was overwhelmingly positive. At the end of the gig, we just knew it had been one of these memorable events that will be talked about in decades to come. To put it in the words of MDB frontman Aaron Stainthorpe, who provided the dramatic spoken voice introductions for Arð: “Probably the best Monday evening ever in Huddersfield”.

The event led to unusual (for this genre) mainstream coverage from the BBC, the Organists’ Review magazine and local and national radio. Mark Mynett then masterfully worked with us to capture the raw essence of the gig on record. The product of this painstaking process, from inception to audio mastering, is now in your hands. We believe that we have created something unique here, which will no doubt bring great memories to those 300 who attended the gig and speak to the imagination of those who were not there!

Kostas, November 2023