Kinda bored last night, I was playing Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (for the PS2), and went through the Desecrated Temple level.
For some reason, the music really caught my attention. The vocals are in the style of a Gregorian chant, and there’s an electric guitar playing hard rock, and what sounds to be a synthesizer. It’s pretty amazing.
On the next level (a boss fight), the soundtrack consists of someone rocking out on an organ, with some pretty cool drumming.
Does anyone know where I can find more music like this?
I don’t know about hard rock, but the Beastie Boys had Gregorian chanting on 2 cuts from their “Ill Communication” album. It’s a very good record if you haven’t heard it before.
I haven’t played Gauntlet in aaages (I think it’s the same one, it’s been a year or so), but… Industrial Monk combines Gregorian chants with industrial rock. Amazon has info on them and sound bytes here (this is for “Prophecies”, their last album; they also have “Magnificat” available). I personally really, REALLY like Industrial Monk, relaxing yet energizing at the same time.
There’s also In Extremo, but it’s probably not what you’re looking for, but I love plugging them at any opportunity I can. Here is a link to one of their albums (again with soundbytes). They combine heavy metal with bagpipes and flutes for medieval songs. I LOVE them. Bagpipe rock is a much-overlooked genre.
Let me know if either of these fit the bill.
zweisamkeit: I’ll definitely check them out. I like the juxtaposition of heavy metal with symphonic and other non-traditional instruments, as well as non-traditional vocals. Have you heard of a band called Therion?
Savatage’s “Morphine Child” (with or without a definitive article depending on the source) is, well, it contains hard rock and chanting, though whether the song itself is “hard rock” is hard to say. It changes style a fair bit. Check it out, though, it might be the sort of thing you’re asking about, but it does go for 10+ minutes, and the chanting is only in a couple of them.
I enjoyed Poets and Madmen, actaully quite a bit. I don’t however think it’s what your looking for, there are no real chants in it at least not what you’re looking for. I really can’t think of anything like that, at least not in the stuff that I have.
Someone help me out here but didn’t Therion do something in this vein? I know it wasn’t Vovin, maybe Deggial? I know I’ve heard music exactly like this somewhere!
OK a quick check at Therion’s site revealed metal with a chior and violins but no Gregorian chants. Check out The invincible or Via nocturna part I,II
I , too, will be looking into some of this, as the only examples off the top of my head I can think of are the beginnings to two tracks off of fields of the nephilim’s eponymous album, but they are only short clips
(as well as the beginning to SoM’s “This Corrosion” but that is only marginally hard rock)
So far, the only thing I’ve been able to find that might match what I’m looking for is Cardinal VII by Ashes to Ashes. Everyone else seems to use Gregorian chants as a gimmick for one song.
Perhaps the earliest example of this is Jethro Tull’s song **“Hymn 43” ** on the 1971 album Aqualung. Gregorian chanting to hard rock, with some flute thrown in for free. There was also Mass in F MinorElectric Prunes, sort of Gregorian Chant Acid Rock back in 1968, if I remember correctly their “Kyrie Eleison” from the Easy Rider soundtrack through the mental haze of that era.
