I am not saying “primitive sounds are necessarily good”. Important to note here, is that I am not preaching a specific way of production. I mean, just because there are certain main ideas of what is “good”, “professional”, “high quality”, and “popular”, these ideas are already overly represented, so why adhere to them?Īll musical creators who have reached anywhere interesting have breached these very laws look at the old blues musicians, who basically sang and played things that were not allowed, and most people probably thought it sounded dangerous.

I find it interesting that so many artists have such a passive and unaware attitude toward how their work is done. I loath most modern productions since it takes away all personality and soul, but choosing such a sound kind of makes you think there was none to begin with. I think we have always worked with a rather crude and basic soundscape. What kind of feelings and ideas did you want to put into the album? How do you see the role of these cyclic hypnotic riffs in your music? The new songs have a pretty crude sound some of the tracks sound even primordial, primitive. I want the listeners to have a strong experience. Better than understanding is experiencing. Whether this happens or not, I cannot control. You can still, I believe, come to similar interpretations as I worked with, and you may experience something that is not totally unlike what I did when creating the music and lyrics. And then any other person who comes across my work will make their own interpretations. Since I am an esoteric artist, my creations exist on several levels, and several interpretations can be made. I personally do not have one simple idea that I want others to “get”. But then again there are experiences that reach beyond logic and into things that are hard to explain. Some thinkers believe that you can never understand another person. The question of understanding is interesting. Is it important for you if listeners understand you or do not? I mean… a message of Saturnalia Temple - do you have a concrete one or do you see it as a universal language that is open to interpretations? From the point of view of achievements, I think this record was a triumph over many tribulations. But there was no question that it would be the most apocalyptic and powerful work that I have ever done. I did not know in my conscious mind how this album would sound. It was even more introverted and apocalyptic than ever before. The long process of creating To The Other was more intense than the other recordings.

It feels very satisfactory and inspiring. How do you see your achievements on the new record? Saturnalia Temple’s second album To the Other was released in February 2015 by Listenable Records - almost four years after the Aion of Drakon album. 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. We played London some weeks ago with Cult of Fire and Skan, which was also amazing. 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. Hail Tommie! First of all, thanks for the time you found for this interview! What’s Saturnalia Temple status at the current moment? I wouldn’t like to continue this game of associations and assumptions, because Saturnalia Temple’s high priest Tommie tells it better. 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. Swedish bloody dark and heavy doom outfit Saturnalia Temple produced their second full-length album in 2015 it’s name is To The Other. ( Comrade Aleks presents this in-depth interview with Tommy Eriksson of the Swedish band Saturnalia Temple.

Saturnalia 2015