Black Metal History Month - Saor : "Admist the Ruins"

Looks like the last time we reviewed this Scottish black metal band it was for their 2nd album. It scored an 8 making it better than most of the atmospheric black metal coming out that year, but not top 10 worthy. There is a more folk-entrenched melody in the music this time around. This feels like the most noted change from what I recall of their earlier work. The vocals are your typical mid-range black metal rasp. They occupy the obligatory space you expected them to. Some cool things are going on musically with woodwinds and synth textures. It gives a misty haunting vibe, though not a dark one. At over twelve minutes it is indeed an epically grandiose way to get things started which is what fans of this kind of black metal are looking for I suppose.

More if riding on the second song "Echoes of the Ancient Land" since this is where I am going to need to hear their ability to do something different than what they did here. There are already too many black metal bands who are one-trick ponies with all their songs sounding the same. It is also what separates a band from just being able to achieve a song to actually being songwriters. They do pivot and get more aggressive, with more double bass driving the sound than blast beats. This works for me as it keeps them from just being a Summoning tribute act. The woodwinds do return to what is almost the stock folk metal intervals. Almost all of this is being pulled off by Andy Marshall, which is impressive to some degree. He does have help with voice to chime in on the sung chorus to this song. The drumming is an impressive display from Carlos Vivas. It just becomes evident midway into this song that their songwriting still is somewhat bloated as the song things begin to drag. 

There is more atmosphere in the melancholy guitar that opens "Glen of Sorror". At least they can live up to the song's name. Though the mood brightens throughout the song into something with a triumphant brightness. The more layered roar of vocals works well. There is more of a hushed folky Agalloch feel to "The Sylvan Embrace" This makes sense given the song's title. The last song indulges in more grandiose pageantry the blast of the drums sits under everything back in the mix. The end of the song goes in an almost Enya-like direction. I'll give this album an 8.5, the songs are long-winded, but the album is well-recorded and sounds great. If bands like Summoning are your thing or you are already a fan of this project it is giving you what you want. Not dark enough for my personal tastes, there a metal heads who are into scented candles and like this sort of thing , they will be stoke. It drops on Season of Mist. 

pst54