Album review: Saor – Amidst the Ruins

Band: Saor
Title: Amidst the Ruins
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: February 7th 2025
Country: Scotland
Format reviewed: High-quality digital recording

Album review: Saor – Amidst the Ruins, via Season of Mist by Michelle

With an excellent blend of folkloric and atmospheric elements, Saor‘s latest release “Amidst the Ruins” might be a great example of how black metal isn’t revolved only around occultism/satanism.
The harsh, aggressive vocals combined with the melodies of the soft chants create a perfectly balanced harmony, giving the listener a truly unique experience. From the very first few seconds of it my attention got immediatly drawn to the instrumental, even though at first it may seem like just your average black metal band. Well, I must say that this is certainly not the case.

I don’t really know how to put it, but I can feel the effort put in those growls. The harshness in them is really accentuated, which is probably why. Another thing I noticed in this first track: “Amidst the Ruins” (basically the self titled of the album) is the interesting blend of the vocals and what seems to be a piano, which is probably the thing I enjoyed the most about the whole album. It may seem silly, but I got a somewhat melancholic feeling from listening to it. As the song proceeds a bagpipe (?) and flute join in, making Saor‘s iconic folk sound pop out even more. Not even that, but as minutes pass a full on orchestra makes its way in, creating an absolutely beautiful melody in combination with the other instruments. Then, the soft voices enter, intensifying the atmospheric aspect of the album and further making me want to keep listening to this masterpiece. Suddenly everything pauses as the flute and an acoustic guitar lead the outro of the song, ending it in the most beautiful way possible.

I can easily say that the first track is the one that got my attention the most, but we’re not done quite yet.

The second track, Echoes of the Ancient Land, introduces some really flawless clean vocals, which made me realize that more diversity in black metal can create absolutely amazing works. Aside from this, it’s quite similar to the first song but still amazing in its own way! While it may not be my most favorited out of the whole album I still enjoyed it just as much. The guitar riffs blend in beautifully with the flute and all of the other instruments, which is what gives uniqueness to this album.

The intro to the third song, Glen of Sorrow, transported me in a melancholic state with its gloomy approach, though the melody quickly progressed into a more energetic tone with the diversity of the instruments, creating once again the folkloric sound Saor is aiming for. Vocals are spot on once again as the instrumental blends in beautifully with them. I must say, the title of the song matches perfectly with how it’s interpreted musically, as I just said earlier.

Fourth track The Sylvan Embrace, starts with an acoustic guitar creating a beautiful tune along with some atmospheric-type of sounds. At this point I can also say that this aspect from the intros and outros of the songs quite intrigued me along the length of the album more than the songs themselves, don’t ask me why – because I’m asking myself the same thing. It might have to do with my liking for the atmospheric ambience but leaving this aside, the track itself gave me the chills with its amazing vocal range. The echoes from both the male and female vocals are just amazing, in a way that I can’t even describe. Not to mention the violins fused with the guitar riffs, then the flute leading the song right after. The (black) metal aspect is left behind here and is replaced with a celtic approach, which makes this album a quite unique piece of work. Outro is just as magnificent, and I can confirm that I literally got a chill down my spine upon hearing the female voice echo in my ears.

And now, we’re moving on to the fifth and last track Rebirth, which starts off strong after the calm ambience of the previous song. Even so, the instrumentsl seems more melodic here but in a good way, obviously. I acknowledged the drumming here and was left quite impressed, probably because I have never touched a drum set in my life – Still, I will always be left speechless by the amount of effort put into all the different techniques used in this album. The more melodic approach of this song highlights Saor‘s folkloric aspect, making me involuntarily imagine a green landscape during a cloudy day – this is how I would describe this track. At around minute 8 everything gets calmer as a soft singing voice begins leading the melody, an absolutely amazing aspect considering how Saor managed to perfectly integrate it with the instrumental. The outro is managed by the bagpipe, which would definetely describe the iconic celtic sound of the album.

So, in conclusion, all I can say is that the album cover itself gave me a pretty good idea of what I was about to listen to. I’m definetely not complaining, I have spent one hour pretty wisely I’d say. Even though this may not be something that I would listen to on a daily basis, Saor managed to make this experience really enjoyable for me. If you’re looking to expand your taste in black metal subgenres, I’d say give this album a try. You may not be left dissapointed! 9/10

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9/10  Epic Storm
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