Saor is back and this brings me a lot of joy. I only started digging into the band at the recommendation of a friend for folk infused metal sometime late in 2020. The first thing I started listening to was Forgotten Paths and it really managed to lure me in with “Monadh”. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the general emphasis on black metal, but it was far removed enough from the typical tropes of the genre and rooted well enough in other aesthetics to make it all a more than listenable affair.
It's honestly surprising to me, even still, that this is a one-man band. The tunes are cohesive and written in a way that wouldn’t indicate the typical kind of creative tunnel vision musicians can fall prey to when working all sides by themselves. It’s a classic case of an individual honing so clearly on their vision that this is how it works out best.
Anyway, my excitement skyrocketed when I heard earlier this year that Saor is dropping a new album. The single was quite reassuring and I was confident this will be a great record. When I finally got to listen to it three days before release via the label’s stream of the record on YouTube I was ecstatic. My first listen of it got stuck during the latter half of “Aurora”. Why exactly? Well, I was so taken with that bit, that I just sort of rewound it a couple of dozen times.
That moment holds some kind of aural magic for me. I’m not sure what it really is, because it’s not some particularly wild idea, nor is the composition all that impressive. I don’t know really what it is, but it tugged a good deal at my heart-strings and wringed out a few tears too.
Now obviously, it’s not just that, Origins flows neatly from beginning to end like a single organic unit, without really warranting the move of splitting it into separate tracks. It feels like it’s legitimately telling a story of some sort, like a very vocal interpretation of some arcane myth by a very talented performer.
The music is highly evocative overall, raising me out of this mortal shell and carrying me through the entire Caledonian landscape so that I may quell my voracious appetite with its wondrous tales of fantastic splendor and grandeur.
To top it off, the production boasted by Origins is one that tickles my fancy in all the right ways as far as a record of this kind is concerned. There’s nothing I’d say is out of place on any level. It’s all just right and what else caught my attention is the incredibly present cymbal work as well as the bass. It was very refreshing to hear these things at level with the other layers in such a crisp way.
I could go on some superfluous rant expanding on all the points I made above, but that’s not the point and you’re probably already sold on the record as it is, so I’ll leave you to listen to it instead of enduring my potential ramblings.
