Review: Saor – Amidst the Ruins
Saor’s “Amidst the Ruins” arrives like a mist curling over ancient stones, its ambition unmistakable and its scope majestic. From the title track’s opening blast beats, cello, tin whistle, and searing guitars thread into a brooding tapestry that alternates between savage and sublime pipes, violin, even piano entwine to transport the listener to dew-laden glades, mist-shrouded ruins. Brooding grimness gives way to fragile calm, then returns with a vengeance.
In some moments the album feels indulgent. Several tracks stretch into excessive length, wandering in search of a hook, with melodies that loop until they teeter into monotony, undermining the emotional tension they once held. There are times when the folk elements feel so delicate amid the expansiveness that they border on kitsch, the balance tilting toward ornate fantasy rather than harsh beauty.
But against these indulgences, amidst the sprawling compositions, “Amidst the Ruins” stands as a deeply immersive work. Songs meander, but they mostly do so with purpose, building layers of symphonic and folk nuance atop the black metal bedrock. Flutes, uilleann pipes, haunting lines take a stand against snarled vocals and occasional clear passages, lending the record a cinematic breadth that could well soundtrack mist-shrouded landscapes in some folk-infused fantasy epic.
Melodically the album sustains momentum, though it flirts dangerously with overextension. The emotional impact isn’t as visceral as earlier Saor releases, perhaps because the novelty has faded, but “Amidst the Ruins” compensates with richness of composition and sheer atmospheric immersion. For those drawn to folk-touched black metal, the record envelops rather than assaults, drawing you inward with its layered soundscape.
Production is clean, polished even, but never sterile. The clarion tones of pipes and strings coexist with raw black metal aggression, without either piece seeming out of place. It is precisely this orchestration of beauty and brutality that sets the album apart, even when certain passages linger a little too long, begging for restraint.
Nonetheless, “Amidst the Ruins” manages to reaffirm Saor’s place in the atmospheric folk-black pantheon. It may be safer, more expansive and less emotionally immediate than their earliest records, but it is also more ambitious and lavish. For a listener willing to surrender to its slow-burn narratives, the journey is richly rewarding.
On balance, “Amidst the Ruins” offers a glorious descent into mist-choked realms, regal in its vision even when its execution sometimes feels overblown. It scores strongly, but without perfection.