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SAOR, the one-man Scottish atmospheric black metal project of Andy Marshall, have released “The Awakening MMXXVI,” the second single from the upcoming new album Caledonia, which comes out November 6 on Season of Mist. The track is a re-recording of a song first heard on 2014’s Aura, and follows lead single “Carved in Stone MMXXVI” ahead of an album revisiting five songs from Saor’s first three records.

The song opens on an instruction: to truly understand the essence of antiquity, learn the lore of the land and become the atavist. From there it moves through a Gaelic cry of “èirich,” meaning “rise,” and a call to follow the celestial compass beyond the illusion of God, before settling on a vow to reignite the flame, forge an iron will, and keep to the overgrown path the forefathers once trod. It is among the most direct lyric writing on the album, now carried by the scale and atmosphere Marshall always heard in it, shaped by years of live performance.

“The Awakening MMXXVI” is one of five tracks on Caledonia. Rather than a nostalgia exercise, the album presents these songs as they exist today, after years of live performance and refinement, closing a circle between early Saor and the band’s current form.

Pre-order & pre-save: https://orcd.co/saorcaledonia

Track list:

1. Aura MMXXVI (11:40)
2. The Awakening MMXXVI (08:58)
3. Carved in Stone MMXXVI (10:19)
4. Hearth MMXXVI (09:58)
5. Tears of a Nation MMXXVI (10:33)
   Full runtime: 51:28

Caledonia finds Andy Marshall doing something few artists in his position ever attempt: applying everything he has learned as a producer, arranger, and performer over the past decade back onto the songs that started it all. Rather than a pause in SAOR‘s forward motion, it is a deliberate act of craftsmanship, five compositions from Roots, Aura, and Guardians rebuilt from the ground up with producer Chris Fielding, given the scale and depth Marshall always heard in them but lacked the resources to fully realise the first time around.

SAOR took shape in Glasgow in 2013, when Andy Marshall, entirely self-taught, began writing and recording alone under the name Àrsaidh, quickly rebranded to SAOR when listeners struggled with the original’s pronunciation. The name, drawn from Scottish Gaelic and meaning “free,” gave shape to what Marshall would come to call Caledonian Metal: atmospheric black metal built on Highland landscapes, ancestral memory, and a distinctly Scottish sense of place, carried as much by tin whistle and bagpipe as by tremolo riffing. It was a niche nobody else had staked out, and Marshall built it almost entirely on his own terms, handling composition, vocals, and most instrumentation himself while bringing in session players to fill out the folk instrumentation live records demanded.

Roots, released in 2013, announced that voice fully formed. Reviewers picking up the record found a songwriter already comfortable letting long, patient compositions breathe, closing on the seventeen-minute “A Highland Lament” with a confidence that belied a debut. Aura followed a year later and sharpened the folk elements further, pulling in violin and tin whistle work that gave the atmospheric black metal a warmth rarely found in the genre’s colder corners. By the time Guardians arrived in 2016, SAOR had become a name to watch in earnest: a windswept, richly arranged record that critics singled out as a high point of the decade in atmospheric black metal, its closer “Tears of a Nation” widely cited as one of the project’s most affecting pieces of songwriting.

Forgotten Paths, released in 2019, took a different approach, trading some of the sprawl of Guardians for a tighter, more immediate four-track structure, and brought Neige of Alcest into the fold on the title track alongside violinist Lambert Segura. It was SAOR’s shortest record to date, and while some found it the least expansive entry in the catalogue, its melodic clarity won it just as many admirers, cementing Marshall’s reputation for restraint as well as grandeur. Origins, SAOR’s first outing on Season of Mist, turned toward the Picts as its central subject, tracing a group of ancient peoples from northern and eastern Scotland into a record that widened SAOR’s historical lens beyond the personal and the pastoral. Amidst the Ruins followed, a return to longer, more expansive songwriting after Origins‘ comparatively direct approach, layering cello, viola, Uilleann pipes, and tin whistle back into the black metal core. It was met with some of the strongest reviews of Marshall’s career and coincided with a shift long overdue: after years as a largely studio-bound project, SAOR began playing live with real regularity, moving through a growing run of European tour dates and major festival appearances that mark a live footprint unmatched at any earlier point in the band’s history. Across six albums and thirteen years, Marshall has shown no sign of repeating himself, each record pushing SAOR’s palette and ambition further while holding to the same essential sense of place.

It is against that backdrop of restless output and expanding reach that Caledonia arrives, not as a retreat from new ideas but as evidence of how far Marshall’s ear and instincts have come since he first put these songs to tape. The album gathers five tracks pulled from Roots, Aura, and Guardians: “Aura,” “The Awakening,” “Carved in Stone,” “Hearth,” and “Tears of a Nation,” each rerecorded in full and produced, mixed, and mastered by Chris Fielding. Many of these songs have been reshaped gradually through years of live performance, taking on new dynamics and arrangement choices that the early recordings, made with far more limited means, were never able to capture.

Caledonia lets them arrive at the form Marshall always intended, retaining the character of the originals while giving them the atmosphere and depth his later production work has made possible. Guest contributions from drummer Carlos Vivas, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ella Zlotos on tin whistle, low whistle, and Uilleann pipes, and violinist Àngela Moya Serrat round out the record’s folk instrumentation. The album’s visual identity, cover artwork, layout, and an accompanying video for “Carved in Stone,” comes from longtime collaborator Anaïs Chareyre-Méjan, whose work has shaped SAOR’s imagery since Forgotten Paths and continues to anchor the project’s sense of place. Lyrically and thematically, nothing has shifted: Scotland’s landscapes and history, a connection to nature, heritage, and personal reflection remain exactly where they were when these songs were first written, still resonant enough, in Marshall’s telling, to justify revisiting them with the full weight of everything he has learned since.

Caledonia does not reinvent SAOR’s past. It completes it, offering listeners the chance to hear where these songs have been all along, and where, after more than a decade, Marshall has finally brought them.​

Line-up:
Andy Marshall — Composition, Vocals, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Pads

Production Credits:
Produced, mixed & mastered by Chris Fielding (https://www.chrisfielding.co.uk/).

Guest Musicians:

Carlos Vivas — Drums
Ella Zlotos — Female Vocals, Tin Whistle, Low Whistle, Uilleann Pipes
Àngela Moya Serrat — Violins

Cover Art:
Anaïs Chareyre-Méjan (https://www.instagram.com/nanirio/).

Follow Saor:
Official Website: https://www.saormusic.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/saormusic
Bandcamp: https://saor.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saorofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saormusic
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Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/artist/saor/879243889
Tidal: https://tidal.com/artist/5653569
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/artist/6768301