![]() On the first day of the festivities, a young pig would often be publicly sacrificed at the temple, which was located in the northwest corner of the Roman Forum. to replace an earlier temple, the Temple of Saturn in Rome served as the ceremonial center of later Saturnalia celebrations. READ MORE: 10 Innovations That Built Ancient Rome Temple of Saturn and Other Saturnalia CustomsĬonstructed in the fourth century A.D. Saturnalia was by far the jolliest Roman holiday the Roman poet Catullus famously described it as “the best of times.” So riotous were the festivities that the Roman author Pliny reportedly built a soundproof room so that he could work during the raucous celebrations. On the last day of Saturnalia celebrations, known as the Sigillaria, many Romans gave their friends and loved ones small terracotta figurines known as signillaria, which may have referred back to older celebrations involving human sacrifice. Wax taper candles called cerei were common gifts during Saturnalia, to signify light returning after the solstice. Instead of working, Romans spent Saturnalia gambling, singing, playing music, feasting, socializing and giving each other gifts. Even enslaved people did not have to work during Saturnalia, but were allowed to participate in the festivities in some cases, they sat at the head of the table while their masters served them. People decorated their homes with wreaths and other greenery, and shed their traditional togas in favor of colorful clothes known as synthesis. Schools and courts of law closed, and the normal social patterns were suspended. Stick these songs on a playlist with Ufomammut, Bomg, Dirge, Ethereal Riffian, and Saturnalia Temple.WATCH: The Winter Solstice How the Romans Celebrated Saturnaliaĭuring Saturnalia, work and business came to a halt. Obscure Fire by Megalith Levitation releases March 31st, with an impressive CD package put together by the Aesthetic Death label ( pre-order here) and artwork by godlikeikons, who did the covers for Doomed & Stoned in Russia I & II. We encounter the trio in plainchant one more time, taking us to finish with narcotic haze. Seven-and-a-half minutes in, the mood suddenly changes with new cries of pain and ecstasy revealing a mystical second theme. The final number carries on in purposeful stride, whilst guitars wail in a way most fitting for “Eternal Doom.” Phlegmatic voices intone and we are once again in a trance. Around four-minutes, the band shifts into slow headbanging mode with an undeniable riff and mesmerizing chanting. A Cathedralesque tempo dances us closer and closer to the flames. It’s as if we’re gradually being slowly lowered into a great well as voices echo above and beneath the pit.Īs we enter “In The Depths” we enter a clandestine chapel far, far underground, lit with candles and an odd glowing ember in the center, a place of arcane magick. ![]() The theme is laid out in painstaking fashion, while priests cantillate in darkness around a cauldron of spite. “Descending” bathes us in a swirl of ancient fuzz, as we enter the passageway connecting Side A to Side B. ![]() By the end of the song, we’re lost in the throes of sweet delirium. The heartbeat quickens at the seven-minute mark and things start to feel deadly amidst unsettling tremeloes and pulsating rhythm. This bleeds into the anodyne strumming “Of Silence.” The song’s central riff surfaces four minutes in and worshipful voices consort. Drums and bass join in a dirge, and cultic voices bellow while the solemn ritual proceeds, complete with the swaying hands of acolytes and damning riffage. Strange dissonant guitar strains emerge from opening track “Obscure Fire.” It’s a bit jarring at first, but we’re quickly captured under its spell. “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.” Whether these songs lay claim to the profane offering of Leviticus 10:1 we may never know, but what is certain is their dark, powerful, hypnotic atmosphere. My closest stream of consciousness is an archaic reference to “strange fire” in the Old Testament. Their third full-length is called ‘Obscure Fire’ (2023). Now two years hence, the mysterious cult speak once again. When we last checked in with the hooded cadre from the Ural Mountains of Chelyabinsk Oblast, MEGALITH LEVITATION had just revealed their collection of Void Psalms (one of Doomed & Stoned’s Heavy Best of 2021, reviewed here).
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