Saor - Forgotten Paths (2019)

After a busy 2018 with live appearances, Saor return with yet another brilliant Atmospheric/Folky Black Metal release with “Forgotten Paths”. Filled with magical and lush melodic passages, this album delivers over 38 minutes of intense and mystical music. With a very busy touring schedule in 2019, this is the perfect album to conquer hordes of new fans and followers.

Opening with intensity, the album title track leads way for a musical experience filled with crafty guitar melodies and very dreamy atmospherics. There are even moments that Saor dwells in more Alcest-like passages in this lush and quite intense piece. The buildup on songs like “Monadh” is just brilliant, showing the listener just little peeks of what is to come as the track comes unraveled through its moody tempo changes and expert instrumentation.

Our favorite track in this release is the ethereal “Bròn”, where the acoustic guitars, folk instruments, and female vocals add that extra level of wonder and magic to the song. Andy Marshall continues to impress us with the quality of his compositions, always exploring new combinations of elements in other to create a very unique and out of this world atmosphere with his music. At this point in the release, over 30 minutes have flown by and we are still in awe of how well all the elements work and contrast with the aggressive BM side of the band.

As the release comes to a close with the playful acoustic “Exile”, we are quite eager to start the journey all over again. “Forgotten Paths” is an album filled with a great deal of atmospheric layers that need more than a few spins to be fully discovered. While keeping things heavy and aggressive, Saor creates some of the most lush and complete Atmospheric Black Metal music we have heard in the last few years.

Label: Avantgarde Music

Release: February 15th, 2019

Genre: atmospheric Black Metal

Country: UK