Fen/De Arma - Towards the Shores of the End (Split)

Fen:
After my recent discovery of this post black/shoegaze element that has slowly risen from the ashes of the metal cellars I’m really hyped to hear some good bands playing this type of music. Aside from Les Discrets, Alcest, Nattsol and one or two others the search has been pretty rudimentary and exhausting, not to mention a let-down in spots. A lot of bands are jumping on this bandwagon and, as expected, raping a good thing. Fen from England is not one of those rape-jobs-in-wait. I’ve been so impressed with the band’s 2007 EP Ancient Sorrow I went out and bought the limited edition vinyl and recently scored the first full-length titled The Malediction Fields. With the 2011 full-length called Epoch eagerly awaiting my attention I was passed along this split with Sweden’s De Arma and was just as excited to hear what else was in store for me.

The opening track “Soilbound” sort of slithers right into the consciousness like a razor-sharp blade into the first two layers of skin in the palm of your hand; it just enters without much notice and does its damage accordingly. The slowdown comes in the “Ageless Thenody” where the ‘shoegaze’ essence really takes shape, sort of lifting the mind out and over the landscape. The pained vocal meshes with a straight-ahead black metal rasp that only compliments the music. When you anticipate the music to follow a set pattern, it deviates nicely and reshapes the schematic so wonderfully easy that I just sit here and smile at its simplistic beauty. “Towards the Shores of the End” literally travels through some majestic period of space that moves like molasses, yet completely surrounds and engulfs me. It’s a tremendously encompassing track that doesn’t rely on too much complexity or regurgitated soundscapes. Unlike many of the pretenders popping up, the music follows a strict line of thought and manages to enlighten the listener if he or she is not too careful. The split ends the Fen area with an acoustic version of “Bereft” that is somewhat intoxicating just because it has a romantic background filling out the underside. It’s as enchanting as its electric counterparts, trust me.

Atmospheric and even overwhelming for the arduous fan of this movement, Fen is a band to put up there with your Alcest, Amesoeurs, Les Discrets worship; this quartet makes no apologies and offers no plasticity in their music whatsoever, and I foresee only the best things for them on this current path. This type of music was once honest and integral, and before the violators arrive to muck up the machine try and enjoy some of the more substantial efforts out there.    4/5    



De Arma:
Sweden’s one-man show of De Arma features Sir A. from the black metal project Leviathan that produced one solid effort called Far Beyond the Light back in ’02. Drifting into post-rock/black metal territory, ‘A’ offers up three songs of pretty solid music, albeit a bit uneven in the pacing in spots. That aside, the sorrowful feel found in this form of melancholy music is certainly present and accounted for.

“Crimson Waters Ebbing the Shore” doesn’t really separate from the pattern set early on in the main riff, but it does include some lush elements of aura and atmosphere at just the right times (usually when you’re starting to tire of the line of chords), so it disrupts the stagnancy at seemingly the perfect intervals. The vocals are lower in the mix, but sill discernable and sort of interesting. There is no wailing or caustic screeching; moreover it’s a well-designed clear rasp that sounds a bit more forced than you might think, but it works well in its ground area. “Noemata” suffers a similar fate with much of the same basic riff permeating the song, but the harsh rasping black vocals are presented and mix well with some clean tones in moderate dispersing throughout the nine-minute epic. You can easily get into the three tracks here behind Fen, but there is little shoegaze/post-black in here as much as there is straight black with some atmospheric elements tossed in for measure and fluidity. “Noemata” has some of the ‘gaze’ facets in its mid-section; those resonate and are enjoyable, and that’s what makes the song great. I can get past the flaccid riff that pretty much scales the song’s perimeter when something interesting is there to save it from itself. “From Horizon to Oblivion” is the best track in the De Arma section and that’s because its riff is black metal without much in the way of argument or speculation. Once more it suffers from B.R.S. (Basic Riff Syndrome), but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad track. In fact, quite the contrary, it’s a solid black metal song that does eventually shift its gears a bit and throws in some detuned-sounding fretwork that works for a minute or so, then gets a bit tired quickly.    

By no means is the De Arma section of this split a bad choice, but the ‘samey’ feel of the music makes the feeling of missing something quite real for the ardent fan of the genre that’s pretty much heard everything a hundred times over.    2.5/5      

Release Date: February 15, 2011
Label: Nordvis Produktion

TRACK LISTING

Fen
   1.  Soilbound
   2.  Ageless Thenody
   3.  Towards the Shores of the End
   4.  Bereft (Acoustic Reprise)
De Arma
   5.  Crimson Waters Ebbing the Shore
   6.  Noemata
   7.  From Horizon to Oblivion

Total playing time:  52:16

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*Comments:

Reviewer: Chris

February 14, 2011

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