Heavenly host Churches embrace heavy metal

It was a "bonkers gig", pairing heavy metal with a pipe organ-a musical curiosity that the bands thought would surely seldom be repeated, if ever.

- James Tapper

But Pantheïst and Aro, the doom metals bands who performed the concert at Huddersfield town hall last year, have been inundated with requests to repeat the performance with churches leading the way.

"We thought that churches would look at it as slightly heretical - having a metal band playing in church - but that wasn't the case at all," said Mark Mynett, a senior lecturer in music production at Huddersfield University. "They really embraced this bold new world - some of them talked about bringing a new audience into church."

Last August saw Pantheïst and Aro accompanied by David Pipe, the cathedral organist at the Diocese of Leeds, playing Huddersfield town hall's 1860 "Father" Willis organ. Mynett said after the Observer covered the event, it was featured on Radio 4's Sunday Worship, prompting dozens of churches to get in touch with him and Pipe.