Fen has been incredibly consistent over the past twenty years, and while some of their earlier work may have drawn a lot of parallels to bands like Agalloch, as they’ve progressed the group has really found their own unique elements. Each of their albums has emphasized something a bit different while retaining the ties back to nature and the region of The Fens in England, and whether you go for the sweeping progressive suites of Winter or more direct and spacey atmosphere of The Dead Light Fen’s discography has a lot of subtle details to uncover. 2023’s Monuments to Absencerepresented another shift in sound, emphasizing aggression and harsher moments that felt like it captured as much traditional black metal fury as the band’s usual atmospheric slant. Three years after that effort, Fen returns with ELEMENTAL Part One: MOURNING EARTH, the first in a new installment that comes through like a callback to both The Malediction Fields and Winter. It’s their shortest to date, but the brevity reframes the usual build-ups and peaks you’d expect from Fen, making this another stunning effort.
The Dead Light was previously Fen’s shortest and most compact album, which at fifty-seven minutes made it clear for newcomers the type of expansive and sprawling arrangements they were in for when checking out the rest of the band’s discography. Monuments to Absence then pushed things outwards again at an hour and seven minutes, but with ELEMENTAL brevity is once again the name of the game. At just under forty-seven minutes this effort is noticeably compact by the band’s standards but given its part one naming I’m curious to see if it will flow seamlessly into a follow-up and form a much lengthier listen across both releases. But since we don’t know what the second part is going to be like just yet, right now it seems best to take ELEMENTAL in as its own body of work and it has plenty to dig into. With this part focused on different types of terrain and features of the earth itself, the songwriting reflects its subject matter well through earthier, atmospheric build-ups and roaring peaks. Opener “Glacier” has an appropriately low-end rumble and guitars that have a harsher tone to them, giving an icy feel as well as accurately reflecting the power of glacial shifts through the music. “Tectonic” follows suits, giving space for some periods of calm and tranquility before the raging, aggressive riffs come roaring back in. But once you’ve gotten through these two tracks, things transition over towards more of a post rock and mellower approach, which is where the material reminds me of the types of soaring melodies and more introspective approaches that Winter had to offer. There are still much louder, abrasive peaks within these tracks, but the way that “Massif” and “Abyssal Plain” build up makes for a more somber and haunting listen. “Abyssal Plain” and closer “Moor” remind me of classic Fen crossed with a bit of Enslaved’s progressive tendencies, and the way the layers wash over you is entrancing. With the exception of “Moor”, most of the tracks come in at six to eight minutes in length, giving the band time to build up but reigning in some of the prior material’s sprawl, trimming some of the excess in favor of quicker peaks.
Throughout their discography Fen has had this push and pull between harsh and clean vocals, though there have been noticeable improvements to the singing over the years. Monuments to Absence still had its fair share of clean passages, but the more aggressive slant meant The Watcher’s raspy screams dominated the material. Here the approach is a bit more evenly split, and within the first minute or so of “Glacier” you’ll hear airier singing and chanting before the harsher elements come in. “Massif” is another first half highlight on the clean end of the spectrum, as the singing has this mournful and reflective tone that immediately pulls you in. Compared to the rest of their discography, ELEMENTAL has more of a folk/progressive feel to its vocals with the black metal rasps coming in shorter bursts, and to me it comes through like the biggest shift the group has had on this element of their music in some time. Where the familiar screams were always something that I knew would stand out in Fen’s music, here the cleans steal the show just as often and it makes a significant difference.
The last two Fen albums experimented with their established formula by opting for a more direct and riff forward approach (The Dead Light) and shifting towards more aggressive and traditional black metal elements (Monuments to Absence). It makes sense that this newest effort would head back into mellower and progressive territory while retaining that harsher foundation, and in many ways the material recalls The Malediction Fields and Winter without being a retread. There’s an emphasis on somber, grounded moments alongside the roaring peaks, and the increased singing/chanting gives this effort a different feel than its predecessors. I’m not sure it quite reaches the highs as Monuments to Absence for me just yet, but it’s another A effort from a band that has yet to let me down and I’m interested to hear how a follow-up ties into this one. ELEMENTAL Part One: MOURNING EARTH is available from Prophecy Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg