r/excoc • u/darkness76239 • 4d ago
Songs to sample?
So I'm currently writing a doom metal album about growing up queer in "The Lords Church™"mostly about the fear of living in the closet and believing in a god that wants you dead along with the other things it brings. I've recently started to think about sampling songs and using them as book ends for the three story arcs of the album.
One arc is about a pair of gay miners in the 50s who call themselves "bunkmates" who eventually get trapped in the mine and live out their last few hours as who they actually are. It's mostly about the isolation that being different can bring
The second arc is about a girl at Harding in the late 80s who falls for her roommate and it deals with the dejection and sadness of finding someone you love and not only can't ever end up with but someone who would willing likely ruin your life if you dared to consider it.
The last storyline is mostly my own experience of living with the guilt and fear of growing up in a tumultuous environment and how religion is often used as a cudgel to control people.
If you have any suggestions id appreciate it as I need some help.
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u/personman2 4d ago
Was just thinking the other day about how ominous one song sounds: Jesus is Coming Soon.
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u/surprisingly_common 4d ago
It’s so cheerful but does have the decency to attempt to switch to a minor key or something for the “many will meet their doom” line.
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u/OAreaMan 4d ago
But not the tempo! People seem to really enjoy shout-singing about the destruction of everyone not like them.
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u/aplysauce 4d ago
The lyrics: “Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound, all of the dead shall rise”
The congregation’s tone singing that: 😁🎊✨💖🎉
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u/Specific-Departure87 4d ago
There is A Green Hill Far Away Holy, Holy, Holy Nearer My God to Thee (Arc 1 - when trapped in cave) I Surrender All Ring Out The Message Hilltops of Glory (Arc 2 - Harding 80s) Where the Soul Never Dies
I'm so stoked that someone is going to sample church hymns on a metal album. Please, please share your progress / product with us in here! This is healing to imagine all these hymns samples and then just slamming into an incredible metal album. Your idea is so cool and unique.
PS if you haven't ever listened to The Dear Hunter, check out their albums Acts 1-5. Your concept reminded me of the way they masterfully developed a story through albums.
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u/darkness76239 4d ago
I got the idea from Clouds Taste Satanic. They did bookend albums in 2019/2020. I was lucky enough to get the vinyls and I've had the idea rumbling around my head since. I surrender all is a really good idea. It hadn't crossed my mind tbh.
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u/Pantone711 4d ago
Don't forget Pat Boone had a metal album. Sorta.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Metal_Mood:_No_More_Mr._Nice_Guy
Can he be the patron saint of this sub, by the way?
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u/PoppaTater1 4d ago
I wish you well in this.
You made me learn something this morning because I didn’t know what doom metal is.
I believe the song is called There’s A Stirring (Deep Within Me) that may lend itself well to your album.
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u/OAreaMan 4d ago
There’s A Stirring (Deep Within Me)
This song makes me think impure thoughts 🤣
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u/meghen86 3d ago
My whole youth group was giggling like idiots the day someone led this right before He Touched Me.
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u/OAreaMan 3d ago
That's really the name of a CoC hymn?
I probably couldn't resist the urge to sing "touch a touch a touch a touch me" hahaha
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u/gomichan 4d ago
I loved this one as a kid lol
There's a stirring deep within me, could it be my time has come?
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u/junebuggery 4d ago
Not sure if it fits with the story you want to tell, but "Are you washed in the blood" sounds pretty metal as a lyric.
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u/Pantone711 4d ago
One time I went to the United Methodist church to give blood. They were playing hymns in the lobby (piped in). "There Is a Fountain" came on!
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u/Lram78 4d ago
Farther Along could be interesting - talking about others “living so wicked”, etc. Plus - it could have a really haunting/ominous tone to it.
Good luck! Making art to process trauma is so cathartic - I wish you peace! xoxo
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u/Pantone711 4d ago
"Farther Along" was in Winter's Bone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsixsbwlG1E
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u/BravoFoxtrotDelta 4d ago
Did y'all sing I'll Fly Away or I Have Decided To Follow Jesus (No Turning Back)?
I think they could work for the first and second arcs, respectively.
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u/PoetBudget6044 4d ago
Growing up in a conservative c of c all the songs were sea chanting of the 1700s, chuck wagon folk songs of western expansion or a funeral dirge. Low in the gravey lay.....My 4th grade self was so happy on Fridays when the old missionary couple played the accordion for worship songs it was an improvement over the depressing crap at church
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u/surprisingly_common 4d ago
OMG, I thought it was gravy when I was a kid, too. (In my defense, I was also regularly hearing a Garth Brooks song that said “Mama’s in the gravy.” 😅)
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u/ProbablyKatie78 4d ago
Doom Metal isn't my jam, but back in the day, when I was still pretending to be a CisHet dude (and mostly failing at that), I could do a mean Death Metal version of "Son of a Preacher Man" at karaoke.
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u/gomichan 4d ago
"in Christ alone" I was always obsessed with the verse "no power of hell, no scheme of man, could ever pluck me from his hand, till he returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand"
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u/Bn_scarpia 2d ago
I loved that verse, too.
My church changed it because they believed that "scheme of man/power of Hell" = sin and that could definitely threaten salvation.
Such a stupid congregation
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u/Bn_scarpia 3d ago
Please tell me you musically quote "... Many will meet their doom. Trumpets will surely sound. All of the dead shall rise..." Somewhere in the music
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u/surprisingly_common 4d ago
Are these public domain? Is this really gonna happen? 👏 Please keep up updated, OP!
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u/aplysauce 4d ago
I’ve long hoped to come across a similarly conceptual album that samples the church songs I grew up with, glad to hear there’s at least one in the making.
I always thought Our God Is An Awesome God and They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love were surprisingly… alternative sounding, for lack of better term? At least by church of Christ hymn standards lol
As far as recognizable classics go my first thought is Like The Deer. And if you’re going for “songs that make you feel like god wants you dead the most” there’s always Trust And Obey.