Fen – The Dead Light
December 6th, 2019
Atmospheric Black Metal
Prophecy Productions
London, England, United Kingdom
Fen is a band that holds a special place in my heart since they were one of my earliest introductions to black metal. While I didn’t fully embrace the genre until my college years when I was in my early 20’s, I became infatuated with a few bands that were receiving positive press at the time when I was in my late teens near the end of high school. Cobalt, Fen and Panopticon were the three that introduced me to the genre of black metal and would serve to prime me for my later obsession. At the time Fen had only released one album, entitled The Malediction Fields, which I still enjoy quite a bit. But in the intervening years between 2009 and 2019 I neglected to spend any time listening to the albums they released in that time period. The Dead Light is my first time returning to Fen in the past 10 years and I have found myself enraptured by this record as though it was my first time listening to them.
The ambiance and atmosphere of this record is palpable, with vast swaths of reverb-drenched chords painting pictures of starlit night skies and vast, glacial forests within my mind. From the very first melodies crafted on the opening track “Witness” I feel myself getting lost in a world of pale white snows and dark black shadows. It’s at both times beautiful and darkly mesmerizing.
What I love about this record though, is that while it’s primarily fixed within the genre of atmospheric black metal, the band doesn’t allow this categorization to hold them back. Sure, there are tons of tropes that listeners will find familiar if they’ve been invested in this genre at all over the past two decades, but there are some progressive leanings here and there that make things interesting. As you’ll find further down in this review I’ve made multiple references to Enslaved and I think that comparison is apt. The band never veers into full on prog wankery territory, but there are slight nods of experimentation and playing around with time signatures that help make this record stand out within the genre. Listen to the song “Labyrinthine Echoes” for a prime example of this.
The guitars are provided by Frank Allain, also known by his black metal alias of ‘The Watcher’, and he offers a variety of different ideas on this record. While most of the guitar work does borrow from long standing black metal ideas it is worth noting that Fen has certainly been a big part of the developmental history of the atmospheric black metal genre. The melancholic chord progressions heard on this record have been done before by other bands in this subgenre but I feel like Allain adds his own special touch to it. For example, the song “The Dead Light, Pt. 1” has some really interesting, bordering on progressive, riffing going on. There are some awesome moments of intricate timing and switching back and forth between mid-paced chugging, thrash metal ripping and standard black metal tremolo picking. The point is that there are lots of different ideas on this record but they all feel very well connected together, and even when Allain is doing something a bit more out of the box it doesn’t feel out of place in the grander context of The Dead Light.
The bass is provided by Adam Allain, who goes by the alias of ‘Grungyn’ and I absolutely love how audible his bass playing is on this record. He does a lot of neat little tricks with the lower end axe which helps him to stand out in a genre that is so often not considerate of the bass at all. For example, “Witness” has that ever so satisfying bass slide right at the beginning, and “The Dead Light, Pt. 2” opens on the bass providing this constant chugging of the same note that allows the guitars to build layers of atmosphere above it. There’s even an awesome, bass-led segment in “Labyrinthine Echoes” which really stands out for its catchiness. It may not be anything to write home about in terms of memorable riffing, but Allain’s playing serves as the backbone upon which much of these compositions are built and the attention to detail given to the bass in the mix makes it worthy of pointing out and applauding.
The drums on this record were performed by Pete Aplin, going by the alias of ‘Havenless’, who subsequently departed the band following the release of The Dead Light, and was replaced by Jesel G., also known by the alias of ‘Heretic Blades’. Aplin is awesome on this album, throwing tons of intricate playing patterns with interesting time signatures into this compositions that really reminds me of Enslaved. Of course there are plenty of moments where the drumming is really quite simple, such as most of “Witness”, or the ‘rock’ segments of “Nebula”, but he also tosses in prolonged segments of blast beats or violently fast double bass drumming. Aplin’s performance is exactly what this record required and it’s a shame that he will no longer be playing with the band.
While blast beats, tremolo picking and double bass drumming is found all over this album, there’s more to it than just that, as I’ve alluded to in the previous paragraphs. Black metal is often thought of as a genre full of bands trying to out-cold or out-blaspheme the other with the intensity of their music (see bands like Belphegor or Immortal), but black metal also has the ability to be really catchy and to craft genuine earworms. There are multiple moments on this album that I often find myself humming when I’m not actively listening to it. For example, there’s the awesome bridge of “The Dead Light, Pt. 1” which has this Enslaved vibe to it that I really dig, or the weird proggy segments of “Labyrinthine Echoes”. I love going back to this album even a year after its release and jamming out to these awesome tunes.
The production on this record is fantastic. I love how thick and heavy the bass is mixed, most notably on the opening track “Witness”. But I also love how the drums stand out in the mix. The cymbals are awash in echoing reverb but the bass drum and the toms cut through the ambient soundscapes like a knife. The guitars feel more like a wall of sound than the other instruments involved and they serve mostly to create these beautiful textures of mournful melodies and chord progressions than to deliver sick riffs. I feel myself drunk with glee as I get lost in the atmosphere the mix on this record creates.
I feel bad that I’ve neglected the past several albums that Fen have released because this record is just so damned great. I really find myself struggling to find anything negative to say about it except maybe for the fact that it drags on for a bit too long. But in any case if you’re a fan of atmospheric black metal and like bands in the vein of Agalloch or Gallowbraid this record will be right up your alley. I’ve heavily enjoyed The Dead Light and if I had the ability to go back in time I might have retroactively added it as an honourable mention to my ‘Best of 2019’ list. I can’t do that so the best I can do is highly recommend that you take the opportunity to give this one a listen.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Witness”
“The Dead Light, Pt. 1”
“Labyrinthine Echoes”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 