Primordial - As Rome Burns

[PaleolithicMind]

And Rome, well, Rome is an Empire, Rome thinks of more & more, bigger & bigger but no goal. Nero is its tyrant, he thinks Me & Myself, so when Rome burns, he laughs. He doesn't see the bridges to the past, not even back to die-is-cast Caesar that led to Nero-Caesar. Loss of faith kills family, (throw dice instead), & even personal freedom is less, since everyone is Nero. People look for answers, some are moron killer answers. But sing to the slaves, because Rome is burning. Remember gods&SPQR.

[PaleolithicMind]

One guy said the part-- "What nation, what state, what land is this?" is the EU, apparently they have a saying, "One nation, one state, one land is this" or something. Well, I'm an American, so I know here we have (had?) a saying "from sea to shining sea", which sounds like the lyric, "From shore to cursed shore". And as for the part, "I see you've chosen to lose your faith, to burn your bridges and lose your way", that's the cynicism we've got now, which makes mockery of these sayings.

[Blackfrost149]

@GolliwoggMusic is there any Primordial song you don't approve?

[Inelinc]

Seen this song live a bunch of times, they are really awsome.

Loved them live at graspop 2008 most - great times great times!

[PrehistoricPinup]

@jaaniits24 None of them were immigrants. They are all English people. Their parents or grandparents were maybe immigrants. But not the rioters. And all of their grandparents immigrated from countries England invaded and colonised. So, the moral of the story is, invade a country, and prepare to get fucked up by the youth a few generations later.

[metalovore1968]

Awesome song,Masterpiece.

[ASLAR91]

@jaaniits24 My answer to all this conversation of yours is that we can all live together peacefully and get along but we just do not want to (do not try to search for explanations of this we just do not want to).The human race is pathetic!That's all!

[Daarkvader]

@ASLAR91 I agree, i believe if they wanted to, Even Satanists and Christians can sit in the same room without killing/preaching to each other. the Problem in this world isnt religions or the lack thereof... the problem is people.

[disg0rge]

@jaaniits24

prosperity during the colonial era was based on the political model you mentioned. but have a look on today's prosperity. in the 2nd half of the 20th century your socalled white culture profited by intereuropean migration ( eg movement of italians to germany). what about the UK? london's regarded as the most international city of the world - and economically one of the most important locations of the world, too.

[disg0rge]

@jaaniits24

well youre right, sometimes it leads to conflicts, e.g. in africa, but with regard to europe, the mix had introduced the longest period of peace in europe ever. so far, noone knows what the future brings

[disg0rge]

@jaaniits24

You ARE racist. "Preserving the wellbeing of european cultures" ?? Are you crazy? Its not about the wellbeing of a single fucking race but of the whole humanity.

[02Blackbeard]

very good music.

[riric666]

favo!!!

[TheDruggedGamer]

I was gutted when the singers voice blew up at the start of their 3rd song last weekend at Bloodstock. Luckily they did as their second! :D

[nicholsjoshua15]

This sounds like TOOL cool, I will start listening to this band.

[Metalicalypse]

Man this band is just awesome,What are they? pagan metal? Are they racist? I mean are they like NSBM? or are they anti-Ancient Roman? What?

Thanks.

[jordangerlitz]

@Metalicalypse These guys are not racist there from Ireland and have a lot to say just like when Slayer did Angel Of Death and they were labeled racists

[MassExtinctionEvent]

@Metalicalypse It's a metaphor. The song is about how corporate multinationals are creating an all-encompassing bland mono-culture and how people around the world are "playing the fiddle" (or iPhone if you will) while all around them their cultures and historical roots are being "burned". Listen to Heathen Tribes as well. That song basically says that we can retain our own cultures and historical roots, and still stand together and feel kinship with those from other lands. They're not racist.

[viletree]

This song never gets old

[Dualismoassoluto]

Primordial goes straight to the heart of the listener.

[Rekaert]

@Dualismoassoluto For pure passion, I've yet to find a band to match them. Alan could sing about sunday lunch and make it sound like an epic tapestry of ancient history.

[killerpeaches7]

man I can never decide who is more awesome.. Primordial or Moonsorrow....... I guess teh great part is I don't have to choose! one of the best BM albums ever penned!

[Disco1Destroyer]

"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values...

Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain completely up-to-date files containing even the most personal information about the citizen." ~ Zbigniew Brzezinski

[polarbear1110]

First time i listen to pagan metal. I am a big fan of Insomnium and Belakor and this is just awesome! Great band!

[Metal1813]

@polarbear1110

It´s the same thing at me.

Maybe I go to a concert of them in Aschaffenburg, Germany this year :)

[cptgaryklein]

Friggin' awesome.

[NochbeiVerstand]

Hail Dr. David Duke!!!

[AstroFiend91]

this is one of the most epic pagan metal band i have ever heard....truly epic

[eklipse12345]

amazing

[DeathMayDiemetal]

To people saying the burning of Rome is metaphoric, that may be so, but in a history repeats it's self kind of way. Nero was emperor of Rome during the great fire of Rome. Nero was basically a crazy tyrant, so I really see it in a historical context.

[noxure]

@DeathMayDiemetal No, forget what you learned in elementary school about Nero, it's all Christian lies. He was very popular with commoners, but he was the one who started Christian persecution. After the rise of Christianity he was demonized as an insane tyrant and many reliable sources were destroyed.

On the surface he was an Emperor for the people, but his policies were bleeding the state dry. Being popular doesn't mean you're a good ruler.

[nanoradio]

@noxure yes but before you exalt Nero too much, there is truth in the exaggerations, after more burned, instead of allowing residents to rebuild, he allocated this space to build the most lavish of palaces. some contemporaries say that the fire was very convenient since it left space for his new palace. after his suicide most of the palace was torn down. In fact the colossus of Nero as Apollo was defaced and changed to resemble the god Sol Invictus. romans were trying to forget the Nero years

[stickitybone]

Not sure if it has already been mentioned below but this song is mainly referencing the European Union...."One nation, one state, one land is this."

[belphegor79]

@MetallicAddict15 No shit. No one cares about what I think politically, and no one cares about what some other metalhead thinks about politics either. Bringing it here is like bringing a club to a bridge game.

[alamahao]

epic voice, epic song, epic band, epic music, epic all

[EOGS4492]

All those asking if the song is metaphorical; it is. In the booklet for the CD, they have liner notes that explain the songs, and this is meant to be talking about how our cultures have become so bloated in their sense of self that we won't even notice as our world burns.

[Valmarith]

I understand, I apologize for confronting that Nazi on your channel.

Primordial is one of my favorite bands, thank you for uploading this song.

[Valmarith]

Words can not speak enough honor for what Primordial does.

[NochbeiVerstand]

"So throw your dice and cast your shadow

You may look away

But your children will not... " Yes! Hail the new dawn!!

[Valmarith]

I spit on the racist who use our ancestors to promote their political agendas. They do not honor their forefathers, they steal their name. All of Europe is connected, all of europe traded and accepted brothers and women from other Tribes from other lands before Rome came. We had a great bronze age, beautiful bath houses, fortresses taverns, villages, temples, fest halls. Our children played in the woods, our men drank and shared songs, we had music, happy times, long were the times of peace.

[Valmarith]

Long were the times of peace, the long happy days, now long forgotten. Only as raiders and warriors are we remembered now. Such are the ways of war, when Rome came, demanding heinous things, burning the villages of friends and brothers, forcing Christianity on our neighbors, killing those who would not accept it, defiling the forests, we had to fight, we could only fight or submit.

[Arjozof]

@Valmarith actually, it was Rome which united Europe, made global trade possible, and stopped petty tribal warfare between barbaric savages which Celts and Germans mostly were.

[Valmarith]

@Arjozof The Celts already had a united confederacy with wide scale trade which reached all the way to the Nile, and they lived much as medieval Europeans with multi-story shops, fine clothing, wooded streets, and city walls, not as the mindless loin cloth wearing barbarians Romans had depicting them as.

[uberlogger]

@Valmarith

Props to ya, Valmarith. Massive props for saying what needs to be said.

That is all.

Also, this music is incredible.

[hedbangr141]

@Valmarith Hate to break it to you but pre-Roman Europe wasn't all nice and rosy. Most people struggled to survive and there would have been much tribal warfare. Why do you think people in pre-Roman Northern Europe lived in fortified hilltop dwellings?

[Valmarith]

"You may look away

But your children will not"

Christianity will meet it's day of reckoning, not at armageddon but in the stolen identity reclaimed of all those once enslaved. The church can not hold the children of those vanquished in ignorance forever, eyes are opened and cast to the atrocities of the past, from slumber we wake in horror at what was lost. Let it be reclaimed.

[h6766]

@Valmarith Couldn't agree more with you regarding christianity. As I originally come from Greece, I cannot but contempt a religion that raped and spoiled the beauty of my nation.

Cheers!

[Valmarith]

Rome should burn a thousand times more for what it sent against our ancestors.

[alreadytaken334]

The quality on this video is absolutely abysmal, but the song is excellent regardless.

[jericho1981]

HAIL Primordial.

[Pagaman]

We are falling over the ends of the Earth...incredible... love Primordial

[johnnyotten]

great song. love the celtic feel. cool bass line in the beginning, by the way. adds atmosphere...

[RoBoDaN91]

this song allways gets my blood pumping, fucking love them

[hansjuvefan]

bere liedje :p

[iamthedagmar]

wow this is amazing i usually only listen to death metal but this music is great!!!

[Valmarith]

They are in my playlist, there are many bands I love but these guys are in my current top ten.

[elgatoelectronico]

A similar band to primordial is Yaotl Mictlan (although the voice is more black metal) check them out in my channel.

[MrMoonlight66]

I totally agreed ...the Best Band of the Pagan Fest..even than the rest of the bands did their best... Primordial is today the Best...

[betterthanbarker]

i think that if eluveitie showed, it would have given primordial a run for their money. but since they did not, primordial was up there.

[VisorTc]

Just saw them Mon may 4th @ Gramercy- Coffin Ships live left me in a state of euphoria! fucking amazing band

[napalmwaltz]

I can almost certainly say that this is a metaphoric song. I saw them earlier tonight, and their lead singer said something about how we are slowly losing our freedoms and our culture is being taken from us, and then they went into this song. I just discovered these guys. Best band of Paganfest, imo.

[MetallicAddict15]

Nice; if I can get a chance to see them near me, I won't turn it down either. :)

[nercopolis99]

I'm holding the booklet right now, and under the lyrics of each song Victis explains the track. For this one, he is saying that the multinational corporations in the West are making the world a monoculture, and no one is fighting it. We can look away, but our children will have to face it. "We are fiddling and Rome is about to be set ablaze."

[Ensiger]

Yes, this song has a great message, but it's sad that no one really listens

[SomeUnusedName22]

And sadly, the people who point these facts out and promote the solutions are usually labeled "racists" or "nazis" by the ignorant masses.The actual racists and Nazis don't help, either.

[timboslayer]

Thank you. You're not alone.

[Valmarith]

I agree fully, you can see part of my exchange with a Swiss Nazi here on this video, in email he revealed just how racist he is. I love this song, I love Primordial and what they try to do. I love what they say in the Pagan Metal Documentery. They are not about race, they are inclusive not exclusive, there are things going on that should have nothing to do with race, and Racist and Nazis distract from the real issues and the real problems in this world.

[Tuphut]

Who cares if there racists

[Valmarith]

They do. They make it clear up front that they're not racist, and they talk about their music and message in the pagan metal documentery.

[elgatoelectronico]

what is the message?, i cannot get the meaning

[blockheaddrum]

its maybe late to answer, bu think about comparing rome to europe;)

[Amebixfan]

@elgatoelectronico I think it relates to the European union.

[noxure]

@Amebixfan It's about populism. Nero was an emperor handed out money to the pour, investing heavily in gladiator matches, lowering taxes, made public performances singing and playing the lyre, etc... all that made him really popular with the sheeple.

But at the same time he drove Rome to near bankruptcy and he ordered the execution of 400 slaves to prevent food shortage. The story about Nero playing the lyre while Rome burned is actually false.

[K3lin]

@napalmwaltz Totally agree with the lyrics of the song... I think it uses Rome as an example and it's metaphoric just as you said, speaking about the fact that they truly try to make us forget who we are and who we used to be.

[RedSol]

@napalmwaltz From what I can tell, it's about how the conquered peoples of Europe slowly lost their culture and were assimilated into mainstream Roman society. That transformation from more or less free Celtic societies to subjects of the Roman Empire, and the destruction of the Empire that the Celtic-Roman subjects became so dependent on. It's almost like it's from the point of view of a Celtic god, displeased with the above subjugation...

[Disco1Destroyer]

@napalmwaltz "The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values...

Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain completely up-to-date files containing even the most personal information about the citizen." ~ Zbigniew Brzezinski

[Milner871]

@napalmwaltz i saw the lead singer do an interview called pagan metal he said the same thing thats how i found about about these guys so glad i watched it cos this band realy is great

[Amorth]

@napalmwaltz Somewhat late, but I'm pretty sure that he meant European Union. Listen closely to the lyrics "From the mountain top, to the valley deep, from shore, to cursed shore, one nation, one state, what/whose land is this?" -> Sounds pretty clear to me... Ah well, they definetely were the best from the Paganfest, Manegarm rocked pretty hard too...

[UnoDisponibileGrazie]

@Amorth I guess the piece of lyrics you took just talks about Roman Empire. I think the metaphore is deeper than that

[FuckinLittleDreamer]

I don't know actually why but it reminds me of The Animals and their House of THe Rising Sun..am I lol ? ;)

[MetallicAddict15]

I'd say this one's a little darker. ;-)

Though I play To the Nameless Dead only on occasion -it's very heavy, melancholic stuff-, sometimes I just can't resist the urge to play this song because it's so catchy and powerful. It really gives this ominous sense of the center of the Roman Empire, pinnacle of decadence, being destroyed from the inside, consumed by the flames.

[Metalzwiebel]

beautiful song, especially live

[FraVi216]

see...see....see to that flames, see to that flames as...ROME BURNS!

[ongabonga]

Sing Sing Sing to the Slaves

Sing to the Slaves that Rome Burns ^^

[FraVi216]

my english isn´t so good^^

i heard this song life and understood "flames" because it was about "burn"^^

[MetallicAddict15]

There's a reason I included the lyrics on the right. ;)

[Stellarmasterelite]

No offense or anything, but i feel that the "burning" of "Rome" here is more metaphoric than historic. just food for thought, no bad feelings

[MetallicAddict15]

Never looked at it that way before you said it, but on second thought, the lyrics do give away a lot about the second meaning behind the song, especially the part with "Throw your dice...". I always only looked at the song from a historic standpoint because the other songs on To the Nameless Dead revolve mostly around medieval themes (hangings, tribes etc.).

[Stellarmasterelite]

I could then suggest you look it that way on all Primordial songs.The goldmine that exists in the art these guys are creating is exactly the way that you can create metaphors of "historic" themes into modern life. For example, listen to the "Traitor's Gate" or "Empire Falls". The traitors may not be historic actually, but everyday people who double crossed you. And the Empire could be Rome, but also USA, or even anything stereotypical in your life that will eventually die. Have a good day y'all.

[PennyDreadful1]

@MetallicAddict15 Rome isnt Medieval...

[MetallicAddict15]

@PennyDreadful1 In this context, no, but when did I say it was? I said plenty of the other songs revolve around medieval themes (though they don't just apply to the Middle Ages, but are used largely metaphorical), never said this one does.

[squibblejack]

thanks for posting:)

[wizzdel]

Hail Pagan metal!!!!

This is true pagan metal!

Hail Primordial!

[Dracolich]

Actually, to listen to it in better quality type &fmt=18 behind the standard URL, works for most YouTube video`s :) doesnt work on all, but it works on some like this one. HUUUUUGE sound improvement :}

On Topic: Just saw them at Heidenfest Heerhugowaard, my god they kick ass :D

[MetallicAddict15]

Thanks for the tip. :)

[TheNovoOne]

Wow it really helps!!!

[reitermania87]

Tewh best!!!

[xDasGlowormx]

i love SLUDGE METAL FUCK MaINSTREAM MUSIC haha

UNderground Sludge

[transyllator]

this is not sludge metal

[xDasGlowormx]

....my bad but yes primordial actually is a blackened doom metal band formed in 1991 in Skerries, Ireland ^_^ not sludge my bad