AN NCS INTERVIEW: SATURNALIA TEMPLE

 Exceptions to the Rule, Interviews  4 Responses »
Oct 072015
 

Saturnalia Temple - Tommie

 

(Comrade Aleks presents this in-depth interview with Tommy Eriksson of the Swedish band Saturnalia Temple. Music is included, of course)

Swedish bloody dark and heavy doom outfit Saturnalia Temple produced their second full-length album in 2015; it’s name is To The Other. If you think that you know something about the occult because you previously heard a few songs about goats, rituals, and naked chicks, then just forget it. I wouldn’t like to continue this game of associations and assumptions, because Saturnalia Temple’s high priest Tommie tells it better.

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Hail Tommie! First of all, thanks for the time you found for this interview! What’s Saturnalia Temple status at the current moment?

We are entering the dark part of the year, especially here in Sweden, and we have done some great festivals during the summer, the Sonnenwende in Abtenau, Navajo Calling in Parma, Metal Magic, Geggan, and Chaos Descends. We played London some weeks ago with Cult of Fire and Skan, which was also amazing. We are not booking any more gigs this autumn really, except possibly one very special night in Sweden with some brothers, check our pages for news about that. Continue reading »

ESOTERIC / VELNIAS / SATURNALIA TEMPLE / ANHEDONIST — LIVE IN SEATTLE, SEPT 24, 2013

 Concert Reviews  4 Responses »
Oct 062013
 

(This is a belated concert review, but I’ve also included streams of each band’s recent recorded music for those who may be unfamiliar with them.)

On the night of September 24, 2013 (and the early morning of September 25), a group of friends and I turned out at Seattle’s Highline venue to catch Esoteric, Velnias, and Saturnalia Temple, who have just finished a U.S. tour, plus Seattle’s Anhedonist, who opened the show. The very cool tour poster up there on the right is by David D’Andrea and Ben Vierling.

Highline has become my favorite place to listen to metal in Seattle. They book cult bands, they draw an adult crowd who know their metal (it’s 21+), and they know how to make a cocktail. It’s a great place to watch a show because it’s small, and because it used to serve food (and may still again), it has tables and chairs where the more decrepit patrons can take a load off between sets. Not talking about myself of course.

The foursome on the bill this night — headlined by an influential band on their first US tour in a 20-year career — drew a big crowd. For me, it turned into an endurance contest: would I survive almost four straight hours of almost unremitting dooooooooom or would the building collapse first from the weight of the music?

ANHEDONIST

I had been looking forward to hearing Anhedonist live for a long time, having missed way too many of their shows around town. Their most recent release, Netherwards, appeared on a bunch of the year-end lists we published in 2012 (including lists from many other ‘zines and sites), and it really is a triumph of multidimensional death/doom. After hearing their set at Highline, I was kicking myself for having let so much time go by. Continue reading »

SATURNALIA TEMPLE: “AION OF DRAKON”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 162012
 

(Gaia [ex-TNOTB] returns to our site with a review of the new album by Saturnalia Temple.)

Aion of Drakon
Saturnalia Temple
[AJNA Offensive]

1. God is Two
2. Black Magic Metal
3. Aion of Drakon
4. Ancient Sorceries
5. Sitra Ahra Ruled Solitary Before Creation
6. Fall

48 minutes

Have you ever had that dream where it’s really urgent and really important to get somewhere, but things are holding you back? Cobwebs, mud, vines, family members, waves crashing down on you; you spend your strength fighting off and fighting through it all to get to do this really important thing. Desperation sets in, and you feel hopelessly lost, the ground elevates around you, and you fall. Then there’s that stomach-plunge feeling, and you literally jerk awake in a moment of absolute terror.

Saturnalia Temple are the deluge of mud that surrounds your knees and forces you into a crawl. They tap into that feeling of desperation and play on your astral paranoia; they channel the occult, raise their altars and pillars, and summon the beasts in the forests. They tether you down, they plunge their knife, then you wake in terror. Continue reading »