Fen – MONUMENTS TO ABSENCE Compact Disc Digi

The colour of every FEN album points towards its lyrical and musical content. For the first time in their career, the East Anglian post-black metal trio has used the colour red on the cover artwork of their seventh full-length “Monuments to Absence”. FEN describe the album as an expression of anger, hopelessness and despair – anger at the desperate futility of a human species hell-bent on self-destruction. This is reflected in the decidedly harsh and black sound of “Monuments to Absence”, which is undoubtedly FEN’s most extreme recording to date, even though there are still moments of atmospheric glory, spatial clean sections, heaving doom, and full-blown riffs, which augment the furious expression of rage. FEN took their name from the Fens of East Anglia when the trio formed in 2006. These desolate and bleak landscapes have left a deep mark in the post-black metal sound, which the band pioneered in the UK when the English scene revitalised in the wake of forerunners FOREFATHER with bands such as FEN, WINTERFYLLETH, and WODENSTHRONE coming to the fore. When FEN released their debut full-length “The Malediction Fields” (2009), the band made good on the huge promise of their previous EP “Ancient Sorrow” (2007) by delivering a first album that already combined the black metal tradition elegantly with a dedicated atmospheric twist and gentle experimentation beyond the perceived narrow confines of their genre. With each following full-length, from “Epoch” (2011), via “Dustwalker” (2012), “Carrion Skies” (2014), “Winter” (2017) to “The Dead Light” (2019), FEN have expanded both their musical range and following, while also perfecting their recognisable and unmistakable sound. “Monuments to Absence” marks FEN’s welcome return to a dark and fierce sound.