SATURNALIA TEMPLE - To The Other (Album Review)

Cover artwork by Manuel Tinnemans & Michael Idehall.

Saturnalia Temple first caught my attention when I heard the delay-beset title track from their 'Aion of Drakon'. I've been mildly obsessed with the album ever since. It's such a unique sounding song and really the whole record is like that. It's only later you find out the band doesn't play "shows", they play "rituals" and that they take their noggin-exploding quite seriously. It only makes their efforts all the more impressive: it's one thing to stumble upon a unique and awesome sound, it's another to make a conscious effort to reach for the moon and scrape blue cheese dust off your fingertips when you're done.

Saturnalia Temple has returned with their second full-length album. The first thing I noticed is that it's not as experimental as 'Aion ...' which gives 'To The Other' a more streamlined and focused feel. Maybe it's because of the absence of the delay effect on the vocals, which has been a staple of the band. It really makes things disorienting, in a good way, and lends the music the elan of a sleazy drug trip. I didn't notice any vocal effects at all on this record, and it gives things a cleaned-up feel.

If you haven't heard Saturnalia Temple in a while you forget just how heavy they are, this album will remind you. Despite any streamlining, their distinctive blending of expansive space rock adornments with evil vibes and void-black riffs ensures they remain one of the more memorable bands from Stockholm or anywhere else on the planet. The closest to 'Aion ...' the band ventures is album closer "Void", which makes smart use of delay and repeat effects to bring the spookiness to cacophonous levels.

They don't put releases out one after another, this is just the band's second full-length album in nearly 10 years of existence and first in four years, but when they speak I listen. Saturnalia Temple isn't the kind of band to waste even a second of their record or your time, if they do something you better believe it's to achieve a particular effect. They can have such tight control over their output and still sound wild and free ... and that can be a double edged sword.

I'm not sure exactly how the album was recorded, but it doesn't feel like it was recorded live with everybody all jamming in the same room. It just doesn't have the loose, improvisational feel of earlier recordings. Main man Tommie and full-time bassist Peter are aided and abetted on 'To The Other' by American drummer Tim Call of the black metal band The Howling Wind and funeral doom band Aldebaran among others. He's a prolific recording artist in his own right having drummed on well over a half dozen records from different bands in the past couple years. He also played with Saturnalia Temple on their brief American excursion in 2013. One thing is clear, when you compare 'To The Other' to their original 'Ur' demo, you hear immediately how far this band has come.

But, it's hard to say a more polished-sounding Saturnalia Temple is a better Saturnalia Temple, and yet 'To The Other' is still a terrific album.

I'm skeptical of anything released in the first quarter or even half of the year ending up on year end lists because music people have the memory of goldfish. That's not a harsh criticism, art is inherently disposable, it's more ephemeral than clothing for example, and less utilitarian. But I'd still be surprised if this album didn't end up on more than just a couple year end lists.

'To The Other' is available to order right now at the links provided below, and will begin shipping out tomorrow, February 23.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Saturnalia Temple facebook page

Official website

Order the album:

The Ajna Offensive (North America)
Listenable Records (Europe)

BURNING SAVIOURS - Unholy Tales From The North

Burning Saviours new album is a bit heavier than some of the last few singles the band released over the past couple years and were collected on the album 'Boken Om Förbannelsen'. This is a much doomier effort overall which I like and is a good marriage of dark riffs with classic 70's rock ideas. The sound here is not entirely unlike a Mountain Witch or a Noctum, dark retro rock. I can already tell that this is going to be something I go back to repeatedly. You can listen to "Your Love Hurts Like Fire" on the soundcloud player below (Ironically the chorus to that song popped up just as I was typing the title!). It's a good 'un and I imagine that many music critics will have this one somewhere in their top end-of-year-lists. Those who can remember the January albums anyway. There always seems to be a bias in those list towards albums that came out later in the year. There are several reasons for this ... anyway, Burning Saviours, 'Unholy Tales From the North'. It's going to be out on Transubstans Records, January 28. You're going to love it. Dark retro stoner jams with a doomy touch. Pre-order your copy at this location. My one and only gripe here is that 7 songs and 28 minutes feels like a glorified EP, but you know how I am. I pig out on music all day long. I want more of this!

NOTE: The last two albums that the band released are the only ones I've heard, though 'Unholy Tales From the North' is their fifth. I can say nothing about the band's overall journey or what long term fans might expect to hear. But to my relatively fresh ears, I find this album to be excellent.

HORRIBLE MONDAYS - Anima Morte

You may have read about my adventures on reddit in the Gypsy Wizard [et al] feature. Well that little hour or so of spelunking continues to net results. The previously uncharted territory unearthed there is seemingly endless, as is usually the case in musical explorations. One of the names on Thatool's seminal occult rock list is Anima Morte. They've been around for a while but I'd never had the occasion to hear them until now. There aren't many bands that sounds like them. They takes the Goblin-worship one step further than most: rather than recording tunes that sounds like lost gems of the film score superstars, Anima Morte take the Goblin blueprint and blaze their own trail. That is, progressive rock with a horror-inspired cinematic scope.

There are similar bands out there, metal and prog bands at least partially indebted to Goblin, Blizaro is always number one in my mind in that category as they are arguably my favorite current 'band' (in quotations because it's mostly the work of one man, John Gallow), then there's BlackQueen and Midnight Zombie Alligator among the most memorable. But Anima Morte isn't really a metal band at all, although they maintain a hard and dark edge. It would be fair to label this "dark prog".

I like the moods here. Anima Morte are more interested in atmosphere than melody so the results are more 'Dawn of the Dead' than 'Suspiria' (I don't mean to pigeonhole Anima Morte here, but I can't resist the Goblin comparisons). This emphasis creates a truly cinematic experience for the listener. That's not to say they've done away with melody completely, just that their interest lies in the "story" they're trying to evoke.

Take a taste:


If you like the flavor, you might want to order yourself a CD or vinyl by ordering at the Transubstans Records online store. And you can always grab up a digital copy from iTunes.

UHNA - Demo 2014

Found this one on my good buds The Sludgelord site.

(TANGENT: If you missed it, I'll be helping out with The Sludgelord News during the week to give the guys there a bit of a break. It's a one stop shop for your sludge related news. The first edition of Daily Digest went up yesterday if you want to check it out.)

Back to the matter at hand, Uhna. Terrific band. They're from Sweden and they go in for the thick low bottom sound favored by bands like Salem's Pot and Mammoth Storm, but do it with a more melodic touch. When I first streamed the demo here I was braced for death or black metal vocals to ruin the experience. The first song finished playing, it was an instrumental. Tension mounted. The second song kicked in even heavier and more brutal than the first and now the tension was near the breaking point. Well, no problem after all. The vocals are forceful but clean and good, nothing fake, affected, put-on or pretentious about them. This was a good find, and now Uhna is officially on my "ones to watch" list moving forward. Speaking of which, whatever happened to MARA? They're at or near the top of my watch list here. If you're reading this MARA, I hope you guys are okay. Give us a shout, let us know what you've been up to. Anyway, Uhna, take a listen, you're gonna dig it:

SNAILKING - Storm

Somewhat old news but for any stragglers out there, like I was, might want to check out Snailking's second album 'Storm'. The cover's a good approximation of what to expect, slow, moody dirges of sludge. Listening to this is like sliding down the muddy side of a trench onto carved spikes in slow motion. Three of the five tracks here spill over the 10 minute mark which doesn't necessarily make for a quick and easy listen. This album's charm is in its atmosphere, for which I'll say, break out your gumboots and umbrellas and yet, something tells me that this will be an even better album to listen to come summertime.

MOLIOR SUPERUM - Electric Escapism

Artwork by Hanna Haraldsson

I'm sure by now you've heard Molior Superum's new 4 song EP, and if you have then you know that it's a face-melting rock and roll riff-stravaganza. It's arguably the best hard rock EP in the history of western civilization, no exaggeration. It makes their 'Into the Sun' album from 2012 look like a compilation of tone-deaf guitar tuning ... and that was a damn fine album! Seriously, you wouldn't believe the riffs on this thing, the first two tracks along are worth the price, and if your hobbies include headbagning and air guitar / drums / full band, then there's added value here. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

JUST THE FACTS (taken from the band's facebook page):

Band Members
Oskar Öberg - Gitarr,
Carl Isaksson - Gitarr/Sång,
Lars Sandström - Bas/Sång,
Jens Fuglede - Trummor/Sång,

Hometown: Stenungsund, Sweden

Record Label: None

Short Description
Bloozy groove n' roll, the fuzzy-faced lovechild of 70's hard rock.

BOOKING: moliorsuperumcontact@gmail.com +46762980995

Long Description
High-energy tunes inspired by the 70’s heavy, dirty blues rock and mixed with stoner rock’s groove!

Bio
BUY "INTO THE SUN" HERE:

http://oziumrecords.com/shop/details/660
http://www.bengans.se/Product.aspx?skivkod=486334

Current Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Artists We Also Like
Långfinger, Grand Selmer, Horisont, Dödaren

Influences
70s rock and other related music

Website
http://moliorsuperum.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-sun

Press Contact
moliorsuperumcontact@gmail.com

Booking Agent
moliorsuperumcontact@gmail.com

JUST THE MUSIC:

KINGNOMAD - The Green Meadow

Kingnomad's 'The Green Meadow' EP showed up on my bandcamp email yesterday. By the time it came around to me it had already been bought and downloaded by four of the fans I "follow" on there and MrStoneBeliever had already shared two videos from the EP on youtube and it was only a day old. That's quite a buzz from a band I'd never head of before who seemingly came from out of nowhere.

In reality, they come from Sweden and tread the line between the retro rock sounds so commonly associated with Swedish rock these days in stoner circles and something a bit more Peter Gabriel-era Genesis-approved. Something about them reminds me slightly of Cream, maybe it's because they're not afraid to take chances and go off on wild tangents, but the songs are always built around marble and granite riffs. That and the floating / falling sensations evoked by the vocal harmonies. Anyway, check it out on the player below and grab yourself a copy before any hipster has the chance to get in your face and say, "I was a fan of them before you were", because it won't be long before everyone and their nerdy younger sister will be claiming them as "their" band.

JUST THE FACTS (according to the band's facebook page):

Genre: Doom Rock

Band Members
Mr M.
Mr Jay.
Mr J.
Mr N.

Hometown: Sweden

Short Description
Doom rock from Sweden!

Artists We Also Like
Uncle Acid & the deadbeats. Sleep. Electric Wizard. Mars Red Sky. Black Sabbath. Orchid. Dead Meadow. Ghost.

Email
kingnomadofficial@hotmail.com

Website
https://soundcloud.com/kingnomad-2/

Press Contact
kingnomadofficial@hotmail.com

Booking Agent
Kingnomadofficial@hotmail.com

JUST THE MUSIC: