FEN — Epoch (review)

FEN — Epoch album cover Album · 2011 · Atmospheric Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
adg211288
Epoch is the second full-length effort by the United Kingdom’s Fen, released in 2011. The style of Fen’s music is a mix between black metal and post-rock which makes the music drift between some relaxing atmospherics to some more full on black metal, both are in all honesty at complete opposite ends of the musical spectrum but Fen seems to effortlessly switch between them creating quite the experimental sounding record and the results sound pretty good to my ears.

The thing is with the album that after a few tracks I can tell that this album is going to be an acquired taste; or rather it will acquire a listener with a wide range of tastes to fully appreciate Epoch. It’s that opposite ends of the spectrum thing again, someone who’s really into black metal may enjoy Epoch while Fen are really giving it some on their extreme side but find the post influences somewhat tedious, and vice versa.

I on the other hand have found this to be an extremely solid and atmospheric album, one that is certainly not generic in any way and I think it will please fans of the band’s previous album The Malediction Fields and should generally appeal to metal fans who are looking for something more out of the ordinary. My personally highlights from Epoch are The Gibbet Elms, Of Wilderness and Ruin, Half-light Eternal and Carrier of Echoes.

But really there is no bad track on here. The further into this album I get the more and more I realise what a true gem it is for those that can really get into the mix of styles that Fen plays. I’m very impressed by this release.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I have a promo too and have given it one spin so far. Sounds really great. I had high expectations after The Malediction Fields and it sounds like they will be met.
Vehemency wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Looking really forward to hearing this (a promo is lying there but there's a lot to go through before it's its time), the 2009 album was brilliant.

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