Our review of Caledonia, the new release from Scottish one-man band SAOR, is now live — and we gave it a 9/10. The compilation comes out this Friday, November 6, via Season of Mist. It collects five songs from Andy Marshall's first three albums, Roots, Aura and Guardians, each one re-recorded and tagged MMXXVI.
Some of these songs have been reissued before: Aura came out remastered in 2020, and Guardians was remixed and remastered in 2021. On Caledonia the songs were played and recorded again, with Carlos Vivas on drums, Ella Zlotos on vocals, whistles and Uilleann pipes, and Àngela Moya Serrat on violin. The title follows the name Andy gives his own music, Caledonian metal, after the old Latin name for Scotland.
In the review we line the new versions up against the album versions. The set comes out almost nine minutes shorter, with "Carved in Stone" losing more than three minutes. The drums sit better in the mix and sound more organic, and Andy's vocals come through brighter and crisper. Our verdict: favorite SAOR songs in better quality.
When we spoke with Andy in April for our interview, he hinted that a new release would come out this year. We've followed it since the album announcement in September and the "The Awakening MMXXVI" single in October.
Order & Stream "Caledonia": Pre-order
Follow SAOR: Bandcamp · Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube · Instagram · Facebook · Website