Band:	Fen
Album:	Epoch
Style:	Post-rock, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	February 11, 2011
Guest review by:	Slayer666

01. Epoch
02. Ghosts Of The Flood
03. Of Wilderness And Ruin
04. The Gibbet Elms
05. Carrier Of Echoes
06. Half-Light Eternal
07. A Waning Solace
08. Ashbringer

So... post-black metal. Yeah, combining our beloved kvltest genre with the atypical song structure of post-rock has been quite a fad lately, with bands playing in this style springing out of the wood works like crazy. Making a total and complete fuck-up of a post-black metal album seems impossible (at least I've never heard one), but making a really brilliant one is almost as hard. With Epoch, Fen provide quite a solid contribution to the genre, without rising to any soaring heights.

It seems this album could have been much more than it is. On its finer moments, calm, mellow, almost acoustic passages slowly set the stage, carefully layering the sound with melancholic melodies that take their sweet time to fully unfurl and explode into spine-shivering monolithic climaxes. Really, some tracks on Epoch are possibly some of the greatest soundtracks one could ask for on a windy, rainy November evening, at that point of the day where light is gone, yet not fully replaced by darkness. Unfortunately, on its less fine moments, the tracks feel like they drag for too long, and one would expect that a truly colossal finish would ensue after so much time spent on setting the stage for them: unfortunately, climaxes burn out before their achieve their purpose and make the listener feel as if he's been played for a fool by a promise that was never kept.

Although, this can sometimes work in the album's favor. Take the opening track for example. There is no real climax; the entire track playfully dances just on the verge of one, never letting the build-up tension tone down. Occasionally, the riffs get meaner and nastier, more in the vein of traditional black metal, but quickly tone down and resume the mellow droning, frequently with clean chant-like vocals.

Do I recommend Epoch? Yes, I definitely do. I would be lying if I said I didn't quite enjoy the gloomy, sombre journey through rainy, misty landscapes with which it provided me. On the other hand, I can't call it a must-have. Shortening it and giving it more focused and tightened songwriting could have made the album a truly great one, but alas. Still, if you like your music to be a sonic equivalent of a serene sea shore after a violent storm has spun through, give it a listen.