Fen remains one of my favorite black metal bands to emerge in the mid-2000s, and I’ve followed them closely ever since 2011’s Epoch blew me away. What started off as a take on atmospheric black metal with some post rock elements injected in has evolved with each album, as everything from shoegaze, post punk, and older progressive rock have been woven into the band’s core sound. 2017’s Winter was arguably Fen’s most ambitious work to date, coming in at a whopping hour and fifteen minutes and adopting prog type suites as each song seamlessly flowed into the next. Two years later the group followed this up with Dead Light, which reigned things in for a more direct approach and incorporated some brighter atmosphere at key points. Having covered all this ground, where does Fen come from here? Album number seven, Monuments to Absence, shows that the answer to this question is aggression and more traditional black metal elements than before, but still wrapped up in the type of sweeping songwriting and melodic flourishes fans have come to expect. It’s another stunning effort that shows how versatile this band can be and makes it clear that even this far into their career, Fen isn’t content to simply repeat the same ideas.
Most of the group’s discography has experimented with the fusion of harsh and atmospheric ideas, with some albums emphasizing extended periods of calmer reflection and warmer textures instead of constant raging black metal riffs. It’s clear that things have shifted over to the aggressive and darker side of the spectrum on Monuments to Absence just by looking at the cover art, which has a harsher color scheme and ominous imagery. This carries over to the music, as opener “Scouring Ignorance” launches directly into fast and furious riffing alongside blast beats that might be the closest Fen has come to the more traditional side of black metal in a while. But as is typical for this band, that doesn’t mean they’ve simplified things and instead these harsher, violent outbursts are framed within the context of their varied approach to songwriting. Tracks like “Truth is Futility” move seamlessly from softer, melodic build-ups that still have some of that post rock tone over to roaring, powerful riffs. Monuments to Absence comes across like a natural continuation of Carrion Skies more riff forward approach, or even similar to the harsh wall of sound that “Consequence” from Dustwalker provided, but it heads towards straight-up black metal a bit more frequently. After the more concise run time of Dead Light I wasn’t sure what Monuments to Absence would bring, but Fen has broken the hour mark again and once again been able to justify that run time. Each song grips you from the start with its intensity, but the darker melodic breaks and twists and turns result in material that feels short even as it cracks the nine-minute mark due to how engaging the ideas are. There are even some unexpected elements, like the move into some doom and even NWOBHM type riffing that are woven into the black metal foundation and add to Fen’s already diverse playbook. Monuments to Absence is strong from beginning to end, and I can appreciate that even when they head back to mellower territory the tone remains dark and desolate.
One area of Fen’s music that’s improved considerably since their earlier days are the vocals. That’s not to say that anything on albums like The Malediction Fields or Epoch is bad, but as the group started to incorporate more singing the performance has only gotten more confident and powerful with each release. That’s true on Monuments to Absence, as not only do you get the raspy screams that tower over the recording, but there are some somber singing pitches that are just as stunning. “Scouring Ignorance” begins with screams that are as harsh as one would expect from black metal, but after a few minutes you’re greeted with singing that gives off a darker folk vibe. This type of back and forth is used throughout the album, but where some of the singing gave a more hopeful tone on past Fen albums here they’re more hopeless sounding which fits the instrumentation. “To Silence and Abyss We Reach” and “Wracked” might also feature some of the harshest and most distorted screams the band has recorded to date, and that leaves a lasting impression.
Fen’s always had aggressive moments that tapped into black metal’s more primal instincts, but they layered the sweeping beauty and warmness of post rock, post punk, and everything in between over top of that foundation. Monuments to Absence peels back some of those layers in favor of dynamic attacks that have a bit more of that black metal bite and fury, and even when they transition over to melody and softer passages there’s still a sense of desolation and darkness. It’s a move that works for the group and gives them a similar yet different feel when compared to their past discography. But most importantly, the writing is just engaging and there are plenty of moments that will get under your skin and draw you back. Fen has yet to let me down across seven full-lengths, and it seems unlikely we’ll see a dip in quality any time soon. Monuments to Absence is available from Prophecy Productions.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg