https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Saturnalia Temple Premiere “Saturnalia Temple” from Gravity LP out Feb. 21

Saturnalia Temple (Photo by Fredrik Eytzinger)

Saturnalia Temple will release their third full-length, Gravity, through Listenable Records on Feb. 21. Checking in at 48 minutes of dark psychedelic cult heavy that’s alternately stripped to the core and manifesting a melt-brain churn of grim lysergic fluidity, it’s like a check-in from the Other Side on the behalf of the Stockholm trio, who were last heard from on 2015’s To the Other (discussed here and here), donning an experimentalism of substance and style that veers into multiple chasms of the delightfully, almost gleefully strange in songs like “Bitter Taste,” chanting vocals high in the mix over dug-in fuzz and willfully simple drums.

By that point in the record — that’s side B — the trio of guitarist/vocalist Tommie Eriksson, bassist Peter Karlsson and drummer Kennet Granholm have already trod through the soul-wrenching muck of the near-silent white noise intro “Tordyvel,” the deceptively catchy declarations of the eponymous “Saturnalia Temple” — on which Eriksson speaks the truth when he says, “In this temple we go beyond” — the organ-meets-buzzing-tone-and-gurgle-vocals of “Gravity” and “Elyzian Fields,” which I can only liken to F.O.A.D.-era Darkthrone in terms of the peeling back it does of any and all frills in cult doom.

That progression across Gravity‘s first four tracks is, to an extent, staggering in the shifts it presents, not the least because the band — who made their full-length debut with 2011’s Aion of Drakon — are so purposefully entranced by what they’re doing. Think of what Ramesses could do at their most dug-in, or other acts who readily give themselves over to the atmospheres they create. Saturnalia Temple is the vehicle by which, indeed, the band goes beyond.

Saturnalia Temple GravityAccordingly, Gravity is not ha-ha-hee-hee-let’s-write-a-song-about-the-devil cult rock. It’s exploration of sound itself as a ritual. The tones fill out somewhat as “Elyzian Fields” shifts into the 9:57 “Between the Worlds,” which is arguably the most liquefied of the inclusions here, building up slowly as it does into an extreme psychedelia cast in swirling shades of black set to a popping snare that seems like the only thing tying it to the earth at all. A long fade-out is prescient for what’s to come on the penultimate “Oannes,” but “Bitter Taste” takes hold in the immediate aftermath of “Between the Worlds” with a commanding, doomed severity in its riff and initial forward march, fuzz lead emerging before the otherworldly vocals, which are a far cry from the throaty incantations of “Gravity” and “Elyzian Fields” and the sort of mourning melody in “Saturnalia Temple,” but still fit with the album’s aesthetic overall, which, frankly, would allow for Saturnalia Temple to go just about anywhere and still be trapped in the murk of their own making.

In fact, that’s basically what they do. They create a world of consuming ambience and then populate it with various monsters and threatening figures, so much punishment and viciousness bleeding into the proceedings. “Oannes” brings the organ of “Gravity” back to the fore, but holds somewhat to the chanting style of the track before it, at least at the outset, and then shifts into full-on instrumental trance as it works its way through a solo and a long-fadeout instrumental march that probably could go another eight or nine minutes and be no less effective in sapping the listener of their consciousness. The closer, “Alpha Drakonis,” is something of an answer to “Tordyvel” in that it’s essentially an outro, but perhaps more-there, if that makes any sense.

And if it doesn’t, maybe all the better, since that seems to be the context in which Saturnalia Temple most thrive on Gravity. They dirge their way out on the relatively minimal progression, and it’s as fitting an end to Gravity as anything could hope to be, the statement of their long-goneness already well made in their fuck-with-form experimentation and use of production as another tool to emphasize the amorphousness of their sound, their ability to shape it to what they want it to be, whether that’s pure aural rot or a roiling ocean of bleak tonal currents. One way or the other, Saturnalia Temple give their audience a glimpse at the “beyond” to which they’re going. Whether or not a given listener is up to making the trip there themselves, one suspects, depends on the individual.

Can you open your heart and let decay in?

Find out with the premiere of “Saturnalia Temple” below. More PR wire info, preorder link for Gravity and tour dates follow:

Tommie Eriksson on “Saturnalia Temple”:

“Saturnalia Temple is a song that sums up everything we are on all levels. It is a true keystone for all we stand for. The lyrics is an invocation of the alchemical initiation that this band expresses, and the hypnotic riffs echo this with a vengeance.”

Saturnalia Temple TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM ‘GRAVITY’ IN FEBRUARY 2020

Preorders: https://www.shop-listenable.net/fr/149_saturnalia-temple

TRACKLISTING:
1. Tordyvel
2. Saturnalia Temple
3. Gravity
4. Elyzian Fields
5. Between The Worlds
6. Bitter Taste
7. Oannes
8. Alpha Drakonis

SATURNALIA TEMPLE – European tour with WOLVENNEST and DREAD SOVEREIGN.
21/2 – Rotterdam – Baroeg – NL
22/2 – London – The Dome – UK
23/2 – Paris – Gibus – FR
24/2 – Aarburg – Musigburg – CH
25/2 – Vienna – Escape – AU
26/2 – Krakow – Zet Pe Te – PL
27/2 – Berlin – Nuke Club – GER
28/2 – Oberhausen – Helvete – GER
29/2 – Brussels – Ancienne Belgique – BE

Saturnalia Temple is:
Tommie Eriksson – Vocals, Guitar.
Peter Karlsson – Bass.
Kennet Granholm – Drums

Saturnalia Temple website

Saturnalia Temple on Thee Facebooks

Listenable Records website

Listenable Records on Thee Facebooks

Tags: , , , , ,

One Response to “Saturnalia Temple Premiere “Saturnalia Temple” from Gravity LP out Feb. 21”

  1. afrbvkgsa says:

    Dank as fucK!

Leave a Reply