Saturnalia Temple Biography
Saturnalia Temple Biography
Born from ages spent in occult strife – like the first official biography wrote – Saturnalia Temple unites both spirit, sound, vibration and will in a musical ritual of personal dedication. A unique entity in the metal scene, being embraced by extreme black and death metal fans, as well as stoners and doomsters the Temple has willfully etched out its own sovereign area in the metal scene, a domain of hypnotic riffing and dark spiritual dedication.
According to Infernal Masquerade "This outfit rivals Yob in terms of creating a completely crushing musical experience both on stage and on album."
Saturnalia Temple started in 2006 when Tommie after several years of focus on electronic and ritual music (Lapis Niger, Elektronox, Voudoubass etc) felt a strong desire to pick up the guitar again. The first riff that arrived was the epic UR and Dreaming Out of Death. The idea behind the band was to unite the Qliphotic Magical Initiation that had begun in 1992 and the experiences from the early death / black metal scene of those days with the heavy rock and psychedelia from the 60s and 70s.
UR, the very first release crept up from the underground slowly like a blood-heavy moon and was picked up by Monumentum Records, Nuclear Winter Records and Psychedoomelic Records and has now become a revered cult-release. The uncompromising sound and maniac riffs began a musical journey that does not know when to stop.
Saturnalia
Temple has moved intently through the years
and the, critically acclaimed, first proper
album Aion of Drakon
took the band to numerous major
festivals including Roadburn, Hell’s pleasure and Heavy Days in
Doomtown as well as on both a EU and a US tour.
The coast to coast US tour together with
Esoteric and Velnias was almost a month long.
Every live ritual is
carefully chosen which means that
Saturnalia Temple do not otherwise make such long tours. The Aion of Drakon track was chosen by Fenriz among only 7 other classic metal picks for his 40th year tape for Vice Magazine.
In 2013 the Vinyl Maxi EP Impossibilum was released. The new track Golachab was one of the most extreme and powerful songs so far and a video from Brussel based Video Artists A Thousand Lost Civilizations was released for the track. The other side of the record contained a totemistic cover version of Damballa by the amazing Bahamian musician and mystic Exuma. For this track Pelle Åhman (In Solitude, Pågå etc) sang lead vocals.
Saturnalia Temple released their second album, To the Other, in 2015. As a band that moves intently and without compromise, also this recording and production is done in Tommie’s own studio, Sitra Ahra, in the forests of Sweden.
The strong occult and dark magical backbone was more prevalent than ever, and as a band that actually started before the occult trends appeared, and considering that mastermind Tommie Eriksson is both a published writer and well known practitioner and lecture holder on the magical and occult arts, this was a record that stood out from the tepid repetition of 70s cliches. The name “To The Other” signified that it was a gift from the band to both the Other Side, and to all that is in the shadows, in the other side of existence, that which has been neglected by the everyday world of light. The album was released by Listenable Records in Europe, and The Ajna Offensive in the US.
To The Other presented magical prophetic lyrics that echoed apocalyptic themes and initiatory revelations all straight from a lifetime of dark initiation. Presenting a harsher and darker sound than ever, years of experience, tribulations and triumph was condensed into a powerful album – an offering - To the Other
To the Other won a Manifest Award in Sweden and took the band on two headline tours of Europe in 2015 and 2016 as well as to many important festivals such as Maryland Death Fest, Chaos Descends, Kilkim Zaibu, Sonnenwende Funkenflug, L’Homme Sauvage and many others.
To the Other, especially in the title track showed a bluesy take on Black Metal, something that has stayed in the bands sound. Saturnalia Temple has been called a mix between Black Sabbath and Darkthrone. A video of the title track filmed and edited by Tommie was released as well as a video by Death Crown for Crowned with Seven.
In 2020 the third album Gravity was released. The title track showed yet another petal of the black flower of Saturnalia Temple with an enigmatic major/minor guitar riff that some reviewers thought was an organ. A video by A Thousand Lost Civilizations was released for the title track.
The album approaches Gravity as the concept of Saturn in alchemy, enabling existence through distance and separation, allowing man to reach the magical goals and the total separation of Kaivalya and personal divinity. Furthermore, Gravity facilitating 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.
After the release of the album the band went out on a headline tour, supported by amazing bands and great friends in Wolvennest and Dread Sovereign. The tour ended on the first of March 2020 and narrowly escaped the madness of the coming quarantine years that followed.
During 2021 – 2023 Tommie moved to another house in the forests of Sweden and built a new studio which is called T.O.N / Temple of Naamah Studios. In 2023 the writing and pre-production of a new Saturnalia Temple album is taking place. .
Saturnalia Temple can be reached at saturnaliatemple@gmail.com
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