Marios Koutsoukos, “Hosanna in Extremis: Where Byzantine Liturgical Music Meets Heavy Metal”

Presented on the panel “Forged in Greek Fire: Byzantium’s Heavy Metal Afterlife” at the 2024 Leeds International Medieval Congress.

Abstract:
The present paper intends to examine the survival and popularisation of the byzantine liturgical music tradition in the rock / metal genre. We will show how the byzantine musical tradition, incorporated into the cultural heritage of countries whose religious identity is deeply-rooted in Eastern Orthodoxy, can produce heavy metal bands who respectfully and “naturally” adapt this medieval idiom into a their own artistic expression. We will examine the case of a highly popular Greek rock / metal band comprised entirely of Orthodox monks, Ελεύθεροι (Eleutheroi), and their rise to fame in the early 2000s by popularising byzantine musical tropes and incorporating them into the “harder” end of the musical spectrum.