I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been a bit off a fan of Fen since their debut full length ‘The Malediction Fields’. Their blend of howling, genuine black metal and slowly undulating quieter post-rock moments nestled inside me from the off. Not blind devotion you understand but a special personal pleasure in watching a band grow. By Epoch they had mostly addressed the issue with the wayward clean vocals and were surging forward into waters that were very much like an English inspired cousin of Agalloch. Two years down the line nearly, where do we find them?
Well, if the post-rock phrase sends you into a fury of horror then keep walking because they have not backtracked one jot on that, but if you have no problem with a band that started at the heart off UKBM exploring introspective and haunted places then step up.
‘Consequence’ is a harsh, lashing opening and for a while you wonder if they have stepped back fully into the darkness. The clean vocals when they come are excellent, wrapped in echo and choral style and the harsh voice as superb and full off character as ever. ‘Hands Of Dust’ by contrast is as delicate as Hoare frost as it opens.
‘Spectre’ is almost, shockingly kind of country/sixties folk in the way it opens but if nothing else shows just how far those clean vocals have come. This maybe is too much for me but neither can I say it is ruinous; it has a slight footprint of that Fen sound still, and even if it drifts a little and is too soft in tone it’s confidence is strong and mostly carries it but in a manner too floating and mainstream for its setting. Just a little too far from the path even for me.
‘Reflections’ has a strange but gorgeous, siren like keyboard sound, almost like the soundtrack to Blade Runner in its haunting, winding call. It collapses into a driving bit of black metal veined post rock/metal melody called ‘Wolf Sun’ which has that signature Fen rise and fall tempo. It pushes on, dragging me with it, unable to break from the current and the tune and before I know it, we are deep into ‘The Black Sound’. It is a characteristic of Dustwalker that I get so immersed in it that time genuinely does seem to pass at the speed of these deep river current sounds. It has an internal landscape that just seems to enthral me.
‘Walking The Crowpath’ is just about the highlight for me here: A choppy, rattling black metal riff wrapped in fog and harsh vocals but with that heart aching tune sewn like silver in its spine. It has a sharp beak and claws, too, reminding me how close they usually are to their roots if you care to look. They dart in and out but this is probably Fen at both their harshest and their most tuneful and evocative and the sound of black metal howling out from the land but with an unexpected tune to it’s pain. The bonus song odds a perfect coda to the album, leaving me reflective and a little quiet inside.
As I said at the top, if you can’t abide the thought of the black metal template being bent this far into post rock then I think that there is nothing here to change your mind unless you dare to give ‘Walking The Crowpath’ a fair chance. However if you have no problem with Wolves In The Throne Room or Agalloch or Altar Of Plagues way of blending styles and souls then you really need this for a very English look into a bleak but beautiful world.
Fen had their ‘difficult’ third album an album early with Epoch for me. With the exception of that one track ‘Spectres’, with Dustwalker Fen have sailed with ease into a cold misty world where the harsh and the gentle slide through each other with a sleek ease. No idea what genre they are, I just call it pretty darned good.
8/10 Gizmo
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