Saor – Aura
Dipankar Mohanty reviews the new album from Saor titled Aura, released via Northern Silence Productions.
One man black metal bands (or their sub variants) are often something that I take with a pinch of salt. The one man force behind SAOR, Andy Marshall is Scottish and if that doesn’t give you a clue about the subject matter and his influences then Aura will because it is truly a journey through Scottish legacy and the country’s natural beauty. Aura is delivered with a patriotic fervor and yet includes the sensitivity and inherent splendor that is the result of a man’s hard work who truly loves his job and country. I daresay, if you let your mind wander and absorb the Celtic melodies, the images of the misty highlands are immediately conjured.
First of all, it’s the Celtic instrumentation which runs dominant across the album along with chants and clean vocals (female vocals included). The atmospheric black metal elements running behind the dominant sound add a very powerful vibe to the gigantic melodies. Children of the Mist invokes images of a march of medieval Scottish tribes on their way to battle. The up-tempo drumming and riffing with chants running behind screams of passion certainly does stamp that effect on the listener. Then the song changes its course and runs along a trail of Celtic melody for sometime before getting back to the fast parts. By and large, these long melody driven passages are the highlight of the album; case in point – the title song Aura, which is a thoroughly enthralling exercise in melody. The Awakening imbibes more choir like chants and clean melodies before female vocals make their appearance and almost render another layer of beauty to the song. If the Scottish flavor till this juncture wasn’t strong enough, The Awakening pays tribute to poet Robert Burns’ depiction of Scotland’s beauty in ‘My Heart’s In The Highlands’ which was written in 1789. The song picks off passages from the poem and an overdose of flute driven melody makes it truly magnificent. The feverish atmosphere present in the first song Children of the Mist returns once again in Pillars of the Earth before settling into an acoustic section and opening up once again in truly spectacular fashion.
SAOR weave a truly majestic sound, one that is driven first and foremost by the heart. The heavy usage of traditional Celtic instruments is not a gimmick nor is cheesy but is a focused attempt to create a melodic atmosphere of gigantic proportions based on the Celtic sound. So from the side of instrumentation we have the rhythm guitar, tremolo picking, acoustics and wind instruments gelling together in cohesion. On the other side; shrieks, clean and female vocals are inserted at the right parts and are not overdone. Aura impacts and drives imagination, more so in an open mind where there are no walls between it and it’s beautifully crafted music. Needless to say, the album is truly moving. Submit your senses to its beauty.
RATING : 4.5/5 (A most erudite grimoire, and a worthy addition to the annals of metal prowess)
Stream the entire album on bandcamp
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