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| Saturnalia Temple in 2023: Tommie Eriksson (center) is joined by Pelle Åhman (left) on drums and Gottfrid Åhman (right) on bass guitar. Photo by Nox Ithil. |
We will mainly concentrate on Saturnalia Temple's more recent times and its current manifestation, but not without mentioning their early releases, still dense with meaning and musical power.
"Saturnalia Temple unites both spirit, sound, vibration and will in a musical ritual of personal dedication", explained the official biography back at the time when the official website of the band was still active.
Of course, regardless of the line-up changes throughout the years, Saturnalia Temple has always been Tommie Eriksson's musical creature, and thus it reflects many of his own interests, studies, spiritual experiences as well as manifesting all of these through the evocative and spellbinding riffs which have become throughout the years, emblematic of the band's sound.
However, the band's music oozes a magnetic and powerful aura and instinctively appeals to appreciators of heavy and psychedelic doom metal, whether or not they are interested in esoteric and spiritual subjects.
Those who are instead, can now read more about this also in Tommie's own website, the Institute Of Musical Alchemy.
Their first release, the demo UR, formerly released independently by the band in 2007 and later in 2008 by Nuclear Winter Records and PsycheDOOMelic, has been described by Tommie as the release which "conjured the solar Abraxas from the cave of the UR rune concept" and that "began the initiatory journey of Saturnalia Temple" (from Saturnalia Temple's official Instagram, 2023).
Still up to this day, "UR" continues to attract the listeners in its haunting vibe, and although the music has of course progressed on its path throughout the years, Saturnalia Temple's iconic riffs, able to hold the listeners mind and ears in a captivating enchantment, have always been present since the very beginning. There have been recent mentions about re-releasing this first demo, if it returns available, we will certainly share any useful info about it.
This was later followed by a brilliant EP, "Forgotten Cults / Babylon Gnosis" in 2009 (Nuclear Winter Records), offering an even deeper connection sound-wise with the '70s psych/hard rock.
In 2010 Saturnalia Temple took part in a 4-band split with Nightbringer, Nihil Nocturne and Aluk Todolo, "On The Powers Of The Sphinx" (The Ajna Offensive/Kunsthauch), contributing with their song "To Know".
The full-length "Aion Of Drakon" (once again on Nuclear Winter Records and The Ajna Offensive), was then released in 2011, taking one step further the entrancing riffs, as well as slowing them down at some points to such extent that they achieve a truly hypnotic effect, but always maintaining their dark, heavy essence. "The Aion of Drakon is the great paradigm the world entered in the year 2000. The Aion of Drakon was proclaimed and channeled by Daemon Kajghal. The first open proclamation and celebration of this paradigm shift came suitably 11 years into the Aion, here with this record. 11 being the number of magick and the Tree of Knowledge - the Qliphoth", explained Tommie through the band's official IG.
2013 saw the release of the 12" "Impossibilum " (The Ajna Offensive), which contains the monumental "Golachab", song that was also accompanied by a video made by A Thousand Lost Civilisations, and the unforgettable cover of Exuma's “Damballah” - which certainly many of the readers are familiar with, as we have shared this cover many times because it features some soul-stirring vocals by Pelle Åhman.
Saturnalia Temple then released their album "To The Other" in 2015 (Listenable Records), possibly their most far reaching and complex album (up to this day), it presented seven tracks which not only were developing further the band's peculiar thick and crushing sound, but that were also almost demanding the listener's mental participation and total immersion in their enthralling and dark ambience.
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| Image from the official video for "Crowned With Seven" by Forgotten Lights. |
Out of this album, three official music videos were released throughout the years, the first one as premiere for the title-track, the second for the song "Black Sea Of Power" in 2016, and then, in 2019, a third video was published for the song "Crowned With Seven".
The band toured quite extensively after the release of "To The Other" across Europe and took part in several Festivals, including overseas at Maryland Deathfest.
In February 2020, Saturnalia Temple released their album "Gravity" (Listenable Records), shortly after premiering the title track. " 'Gravity' as the concept of Saturn in alchemy, enables existence through distance and separation, allowing man to reach the magical goals and the total separation of Kaivalya and personal divinity", commented Tommie when the album was released. "Furthermore, gravity facilitates the heaviness of the world to work for you. Unwanted influences and energies are allowed to fall away by themselves simply by one moving in the accurate path, perhaps akin to Aleister Crowley’s 'Every man and woman is a star' concept."
Back at the time, we wrote that the title of this album couldn't be more appropriate: indeed it's a massive opus of powerful music, heavy, thick, where each song has its own strength while at the same time forms a continuum from beginning to end that grabs hold of its listeners like an irresistible pull, conveying a sense of depth and of otherworldliness, as if the sound was being experienced through the perspective of a gravitational wave, warping and distorting the fabric of space-time itself.
On an interview on V13, Tommie also brought up an interesting metaphor which compared "Gravity" to its predecessor: "I never explain my lyrics, but I think I may have been a little less cryptic on some parts of this album. A friend said that 'To The Other' was like the madman standing on the hill screaming, and 'Gravity' was the madman who had become wise and was now preaching in the village.”
A lyric video was also released for the title-track, made by the visual artist SovietJazz3.
The band made it right on time to tour after the release of the album before the pandemic stopped all live activities for a long time.
That brings us to recent times: at the moment this is being written, Saturnalia Temple are about to release their album "Paradigm Call": it has been recorded at Tommie Eriksson's T.O.N (Temple of Naamah) studio, and it will be out on March 1st, 2024 on Listenable Records.
A video premiere has already been published for the song "Revel In Dissidence"; the first single off the album, and it surely sets the expectations very high: deep, dense riffing, the sound of the guitar is almost provocative, yet always compelling and contemplative. The band's typical attention on the production, which has always been and remains carefully chosen to sound personal and distinctive, regardless of what else has been going on in the music industry, shines through this song premiere, too; reaffirming the fact that Saturnalia Temple's music dwells, and spawns from, a creative place which has little -if any at all- ties to the "ordinary" time and social related influences.
In October 2023, Saturnalia Temple have announced a new live line-up, with Pelle and Gottfrid Åhman joining Tommie respectively on drums and bass guitar: this is obviously fantastic news for many of us In Solitude appreciators, and we can't wait to see them performing live in the next months: the first show will be the release show for "Paradigm Call", on February 24th in Brussels, then two festivals have been announced so far: all the live dates can be found in detail in the Partake section of the website.
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Official Saturnalia Temple links: