Fen are back with their eighth album, Elemental (Part I: Mourning Earth), via Prophecy Productions.

FEN

Elemental (Part I: Mourning Earth) is the eighth album from Fen, the opening chapter of a two-part concept that sees the band pushing further into the post-rock side of their sound. That unmistakable Fen atmosphere remains completely intact, but there is more space here, more patience, and a greater focus on texture. Twenty years into their existence, they are still very much an atmospheric black metal band, but this feels like another natural development of what that can mean.

The album arrives through Prophecy Productions, their home since 2019’s The Dead Light, and in many ways Elemental feels like a full-circle moment. There are clear connections to different periods of the band’s history throughout the record, particularly the bleak expansiveness of Winter and the more direct aggression of their earlier material, but nothing feels like an attempt to recreate the past. Instead, those elements have been pulled apart and rebuilt into something more considered.

FROZEN ATMOSPHERES

Glacier opens the album with reverberating drums and an icy, plucked guitar line that immediately establishes the mood. There is something strangely dissociative about the track, at points recalling the frozen atmosphere of 2017’s Winter. Fen have always been excellent at working with texture and, importantly, allowing those layers to breathe rather than filling every available space. That is particularly apparent here. Riffs emerge through transient layers of guitar and vocals before disappearing again, and the whole thing moves with an effortless sense of dynamics. It is a brilliant opening track and a perfect introduction to where Fen are heading on this record.

Tectonic is considerably more direct. It opens with far more ferocity, galloping guitars pushing beneath harsh vocals before the tremolo picking takes over. There is something much closer to Fen’s earlier material here, although the spaciousness that defines the album never disappears entirely. As the track develops, flashes of traditional heavy metal begin to creep into the guitars, giving it another dimension without disrupting the atmosphere. Towards the end, the anger comes flooding back and closes the track exactly as it should. The title feels particularly fitting; this is music built around movement and pressure.

A MOMENT OF CALM

Massif provides the first real moment of calm. Drawn-out chords and dynamic drumming slowly carry the track forward, almost giving the album a chance to breathe after the intensity of Tectonic. Clean vocals make it feel considerably more ethereal than what came before, and there is a circling quality to the songwriting, ideas returning slightly altered each time rather than simply moving from one section to another. Around halfway through, those chords begin to expand and the track opens up beautifully. It is restrained, patient songwriting, and one of the moments where the band’s post-rock influence feels most pronounced.

Abyssal Plain follows a similar path but takes the idea considerably further. There is a real sense of complexity to the way its components overlap and return, guitars and vocal layers swirling around one another while clean vocals sit beneath harsher passages. Nothing feels particularly hurried. Instead, the track gradually reveals itself, and the riffs become increasingly beautiful as it develops. By the time the closing section arrives, all of that restraint finally gives way. The end of this track absolutely rips.

A NOTICABLE ANGER

As the album moves towards its final stretch, there is a noticeable increase in anger. Barrow is my favourite track on the record and perhaps the clearest connection to Fen’s earlier work. It carries more weight, the drums feel considerably more forceful and the aggression sits much closer to the surface, but it never sacrifices the beauty that runs throughout Elemental. That balance has always been one of Fen’s greatest qualities and Barrow captures it perfectly. The final few minutes are peak Fen: expansive, furious and strangely beautiful at the same time.

The closing track is also the longest on the album, and it is a genuine trip. Everything Fen has explore across the record seems to converge across its twelve minutes. The drawn-out nature of the band’s textures is given plenty of room to develop, riffs slowly emerge and disappear, and the song writing feels more patient than ever. There is a maturity across this entire album that makes complete sense twenty years into the band’s history, and the finale perhaps demonstrates it better than anything else. It feels almost like the entire record compressed into a single piece of music, moving between beauty, aggression and vast stretches of atmosphere before bringing the first chapter of Elemental to a fitting close.

EVOLUTION OVER REINVENTION

Fen has spent two decades developing a sound built around atmosphere, melancholy and aggression, and Elemental (Part I: Mourning Earth) feels like another evolution rather than a reinvention. There are moments that reach back towards the band’s past, but the greater emphasis on post-rock textures, space and patient development gives the album an identity of its own.

More importantly, this feels like the first half of something rather than an isolated record. If this is where Fen have chosen to begin the Elemental series, I am already extremely excited to hear where the second part takes it.

Fen: Bandcamp

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