Adelphoi Music Fuses Gospel Choirs with Heavy Metal in New Sloggi Campaign

Advertising and the conveyor belt of content it generates is eclectic by its very nature. Agencies, brands, creatives and directors all have a varied (and in many cases - conflicting) opinion of the message they aim to convey and the creative vision for which they hope to do so.

By default, music briefs come in all shapes and sizes and we have witnessed, tackled and overcome an array of weird, wonderful and at times outright bizarre briefs, that upon first glances have certainly raised an eyebrow or two. So when our friends at MullenLowe London invited us to pitch on their upcoming Sloggi commercial we grabbed our notepads and with an open mind hopped on the Central Line to Shoreditch for a briefing.

The brief for the Sloggi project was to fuse together a traditional gospel song with the rawness of a heavy metal track inspired by classic WWF entrance music...

To achieve this we wrote two distinct pieces rather than one track. This would enable the “shock factor” of smashing together two distinct styles. The gospel track was developed with a jazz singer, and using 1960s style recording techniques: vintage drum kit, bass and mics.

The heavy metal track was based on the more elaborate and “chugging” vibe of early 90s metal. This involved a second drum kit with high tuned tom toms, two Floyd Rose style guitars (for the “dive bomb” effects in that style) and a real Ampeg bass from the early 90s.

Once these two were brought to the requisite stage, a section of combining the two styles in a musical fight was developed.

Using deliberate “mistakes” to make the entrance jar, dive bomb guitars, feedback, organ swirls, stuttering drum fills and gospel chants trying to find common ground, we then hit a smooth drum fill as the music suddenly finds its feet. Both styles of gospel and metal then combine using big block chords and air guitar touch stones.

After the initial demos were created we went to Snap Studios and recorded many layers of gospel vocals to really nail home the ensemble style.

The end result is a fantastical clash of 'Blades of Glory' meets 'I, Tonya', duelling with WWF. This world is one great battlefield...