The British black metal band Fen has gotten some great reactions after the release of their EP Ancient Sorrow in 2007. Actually, that EP resulted in Fen getting noticed by the Italian label Code666 who offered them a multi-album deal. Now they have released their debut album The Malediction Fields.

You can call it black metal, but that doesn’t cover the music performed by Fen. They are obviously influenced by ambient, folk and progressive rock as well. As a matter of fact, the ambient part of the songs seems to have the upper hand throughout the entire album. That might scare you off a bit, because ambient can be pretty boring, but that’s absolutely not the case with The Malediction Fields.

This album is definitely something you should consider as a whole, not as individual songs. Very long songs, I must say. Most tracks begin with a simple riff, which transforms into something more deep and complex while the song progresses. The clean vocals take turns with the screams whilst the keyboards back up with a dreary melody. When you pay attention, you will agree that Fen has put some great effort in organising their songs.

The Malediction Fields is an album that I have played almost every day for the last few weeks. The combination of rage and sorrow grips you and the perceived solitude makes you want to play the album over and over again. Although the clean vocals are off key every now and then, this is definitely one of my favourite albums, if not my favourite, of the last few months. The songs are drained with emotions and the contrasts between the apparent moods of the musicians are so perfectly represented by the different structures, you can do nothing than to experience the music and get sucked into the atmosphere Fen overwhelms you with. Like I mentioned, Fen signed a multi-deal contract, so I would like to conclude by saying that I can't wait until they release their second album!