ALBUM REVIEW: Caledonia – Saor

Last year’s Amidst The Ruins felt like the moment where everything fell into place for SAOR. Main man Andy Marshall had spent over a decade honing his craft, and his sixth full length album was a fantastic piece of work. Amidst The Ruins was beautifully evocative, and it rightly received critical acclaim, including a spot on our Best Of 2025 list. The expectations for the follow-up are already sky high, and we know that some of you will be rubbing your hands with glee at the prospect of a new SAOR album.

However, without meaning to dampen that enthusiasm, Caledonia is not the true successor to Amidst The Ruins. It’s a compilation of early material and consists of five updated tracks from SAOR’s first three records. They benefit from access to increased resources, not to mention the wisdom and experience gained as a professional musician over the last ten years, but some hardcore SAOR fans might feel a bit miffed. Before you write off Caledonia as a stop gap or contractual obligation though, there’s a catch: it’s really good. If you weren’t present for their formative years or have yet to scroll down to the bottom of the SAOR streaming page, Caledonia is terrific.

Andy Marshall is a man who knows how to craft an atmosphere. These songs are so tactile that you could almost sink your fingers into them and feel the dirt of a Scottish peat bog. Tracks like Carved In Stone MMXXVI are part black metal hell storm, part ethereal trip through the picturesque landscape of the highlands. There are massive guitar riffs and tormented screams sitting alongside folk melodies and hypnotic tin whistles, all rich in melody and deeply enthralling. It’s rare to call a metal album ‘beautiful,’ but that’s precisely what this is.

The opening Aura MMXXVI (from the album of the same name) is a lengthy trip into pre-Christian Scotland. It’s a strangely loving number and could even be considered wholesome if it wasn’t for all the tortured cries echoing from it. Hearth MMXXVI is a slow burn folk metal gem that speaks of forgotten pathways and hidden pagan ruins, lost in misty fens, while Tears Of A Nation MMXXVI is progressive black metal done right. It’s a dense, involving track that agonises over centuries of oppression, and it’s excellent. At times it’s angry, at others deeply sad, and it rounds things off nicely.

However, while Caledonia is undoubtedly very good, it’s not in the same league as Amidst The Ruins. The individual songs are great, but they were all composed before SAOR tightened up the song writing and they are occasionally a bit rough around the edges. Plus, it can’t escape the compilation curse. Caledonia wasn’t written as a single, cohesive project and these tracks could be in any order. It’s a collection, not a proper album, and you can tell.

That being said, it demonstrates that even during his younger days, Andy Marshall was an ambitious musician. This isn’t the best of SAOR, but it’s abundantly clear why comparisons to WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM and BLACKBRAID keep coming up. The ancients are watching, you can hear their spirits whispering wisdom from the forest…and they’re all heavily into black metal.

Rating: 7/10

Caledonia is set for release on November 6th via Season Of Mist. 

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