Fen - Monuments to Absence

Angry Metal Guy

It’s easier than ever for musicians to produce and release music, which is awesome, but this also encourages artists to indulge their more questionable impulses. In my first-ever n00b review here, I bemoaned the overuse of abstract instrumental intro tracks and interludes. A problem that has, sadly, persisted in metal. Equally annoying is the proliferation of overstuffed albums that outstay their welcome. Most 70-minute albums don’t justify their own existence. Funeral doom? Sure. Slow music takes time to reveal itself. Are you Pink Floyd making The Wall? Go for it. You’ve got a concept and a music industry to stick it to. In most cases tho, it’s just bloat. Few bands have the skill required to make a long album feel short. In the past, UK band Fen have both succeeded and failed at that task. Doom_Et_Al fanboi’d all over hour-long The Dead Light while elegant Lady of the Night Madam X found the 75-minute Winter entirely too much Fen. The atmoblack outfit now return with the 68-minute Monuments to Absence. Does the length hold up under scrutiny?

For the uninitiated, Fen play nature-focused post-black metal heavy on atmospherics. They resemble their PNW Cascadian brethren but with a bit more of a European flavor. The band has a flare for drama, with stirring rather than somber melodies. They lean heavily on these in standouts like opener “Scouring Ignorance” and “Truth Is Futility.” While frontman The Watcher’s primary delivery on Monuments to Absence is decidedly harsh, the latter track highlights the band’s pleasantly un-precious, harmonized clean vocals. Other songs like closer “All Is Lost” and the title track follow unhurried progressions to more atmospheric outcomes. Even in those instances, scorching passages of tremolo riffs wait just around the corner.

Monuments to Absence by Fen

There are significant high points throughout Monuments to Absence, but before we dig into those, let’s get this out of the way: the 68-minute runtime is not justified. Fen wisely put their best feet forward in the three advance tracks. “Scouring Ignorance,” “Truth Is Futility” and “Wracked” are easily the cream of the crop, but each is immediately followed by a track that proves Fen can’t sustain the same level of quality across the entire album. “Monuments to Absence,” which follows “Scouring Ignorance” grew on me with later listens, but it’s a significant drop in energy from the barn-burning opener. Worse is “Eschaton’s Gift,” a track that’s all mid-paced meandering following the downright heroic sounding “Truth Is Futility.” After “Wracked,” the album is wrapped up with the nearly 10-minute “All Is Lost,” which takes a full four and a half minutes just to work through the slow build intro, and never really hits third gear until the 5:50 mark.

Fortunately, when Monuments to Absence is good, it’s very good indeed. “Scouring Ignorance” is one of the best songs I’ve heard so far this year, with an absolutely showstopping opening two-part riff complex and melodic enough that it would fit snuggly into a Stortregn album. “Wracked” rides a buoyant, blackened indie rock riff for the first couple minutes before veering into more baleful territory. The indie leaning returns late, wrapping the song in blackgaze territory that adds welcome variety to the atmo show. “Thrall” comes within inches of matching the quality found in the three singles. The song starts as standard but solid atmoblack before downshifting for more torque just before the 4:30 mark. From then on, the whole song is one big stank-face fest. There’s a jaw-dropping 40+ minute record under the excess here, and I wish Fen could just be content with that.

When thinking of these overstuffed records in the age of digital releases, I’m reminded of a quote from O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find. “‘She would have been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.'” Now I’m not suggesting we threaten these bands with death, but maybe every time they start indulging that impulse to excess, I could just jump out from behind a lamp or potted plant and spray them with a squirt bottle and yell “NO! BAD!” If they persist, I mix some chili powder into the bottle and spray them again. Fen has talent for days and drama in spades, but dammit, self-edit, people.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: fenuk.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/fenuk
Releases Worldwide: July 7th, 2023

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