Saor: Caledonian Epic Beauty
Out of all of the sub-genres of heavy metal it could be argued that black metal is the most varied of the lot. You have your raw traditional black metal, symphonic black metal, blackened death metal and more. Andy Marshall, the mastermind behind SAOR, with his unique blend of black metal with traditional folk instrumentation is releasing his sixth album Amidst The Ruins and taking listeners once again on an ethereal journey through epic landscapes. As with many black metal projects the music is born from a deep reverence for the natural world. However unlike the more commonly depicted regions such as Scandinavia or Iceland, Andy draws from his surroundings in his home of Scotland.
“I always wondered why there wasn’t a Scottish band, if there was I wasn’t aware of it, doing historic stuff, the Scottish landscape and nature. That was something I thought I’d be good at because when I started writing music I was influenced by Scottish folk.”
SAOR has been the culmination of various projects that Andy has been part of throughout the 2000s with all their musical elements, such as the post elements of FALLOCH or the pagan aspects of ASKIVAL, being brought together in one band. “When I came to do SAOR, which originally was called ÀRSAIDH, this was a good mix with all the influences I had in one; the black metal, the atmospheric metal and the folk stuff.”
Despite these influences from the musicality of black metal, Andy doesn’t consider SAOR to be part of that subgenre instead preferring to view it more broadly. “I don’t really like calling SAOR black metal. I get it, it started off based in black metal with black metal influences but I came up with Caledonian metal as a sort of tongue and cheek way of saying it’s Scottish metal. There’s a lot of ‘kvlt’ guys that probably think the music is not grim and dark. So I try to avoid saying it’s black metal, it appeals to more open minded music listeners. We can get too obsessed with labels in music and I think black metal is particularly bad for that.”
Often with bands whose music is epic in scope, they are the vision of one key song writer as opposed to the more traditional collaborative approach that most bands would employ. SAOR is the former with its music coming entirely from the mind of Andy Marshall. Although working with many talented musicians when bringing SAOR to life on the stage, Andy has always preferred being the sole creative in all his projects when it comes to the song writing.
“I hate having to negotiate things with other people when it comes to creative things. There’s always clashes, ‘my guitar riff is better than yours’, ‘this drum beat doesn’t fit’. You get nowhere and it takes ages to do anything. Whereas if you’re just yourself and you like what the music sounds like then it’s going out no matter what with no drama. All my favourite bands are one or two person projects. It’s very personal because it’s one person’s idea and I’ve always preferred that. It saves a lot of hassle when it’s just you.”
The previous SAOR album was Origins in 2022. As with the other albums, it was a dynamic album with emotive melodies from many different instruments creating an evocative experience for the listener. Andy admits he approached the creation of that album differently to how he has created the new new album. “The last album Origins was pagan folk metal, not a lot of black metal. I wanted to try something different with shorter songs. The reviews were generally favourable but the feedback from the fans was that they missed the long epics and the more extreme influence. Some of the songs just didn’t translate very well live. I subconsciously wanted to write songs that I could play live and it didn’t work out but weirdly with Amidst The Ruins I never thought once about playing them live I just wrote and they work so well. We’ve played them all already and they went down really well.”
While Origins may have been unique with its song lengths and less emphasis on black metal, one aspect of SAOR that remained was the use of numerous different traditional instruments from the obvious to the obscure. Mentally working out what instruments should be used and when would be daunting for many composers. How does one know that a song needs a carnyx for example? For Andy the answer is simple. “I thought it sounded cool to be honest. It’s just a progressive thing, we started with tin whistles on Roots then we added strings then more things. Ever since I love the fact that we have these really unique instruments. On this new one we have uilleann pipes, cello, strings. So there is no real direction to these things. I like Scottish traditional instruments and I like trying different things with them and seeing what you can come up with.”
Even with a strong back catalogue behind him, Andy considers the upcoming Amidst The Ruins to be the strongest SAOR album yet. “Obviously we all say our newest album is the best but I think you can only improve as a musician and a songwriter. Also Amidst The Ruins has all the elements of SAOR that made people like the project in the first place. It’s a good mix of old and new, all the songs have a unique identity so it doesn’t all just merge into one thing. And I’ll no doubt say that the next album, if that ever happens, is the best album.”
Amidst The Ruins is out now via Season Of Mist.
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