Fen recently played a small and intimate and wonderful show at The Black Heart in Camden Town, and whilst it was great and I had been sent by Metal Hammer to review it there was unfortunately no space to run the review in the Subterranea section of the magazine. Boo-urns.

I asked the man in charge of such things if I could run the review online, and lo, here it is (bear in mind that this is the copy I sent in and as such has been treated to the magical ways of editing – also we were a tad inebriated when we had this conversation). It was a fantastic show so I thought I’d throw it on here so that anyone who didn’t make it could be sad about being silly enough to miss it.

Fen have been a delightful and exciting prospect in the London black metal “scene” for many a year and with the incredible Dustwalker just recently released and an upcoming European tour with Agalloch, it seems that that this trio are truly stepping out from the shadows. Pantheist (7) begin the evening with a doom-laden set of sorrow and rich melody; their sound taking in shades of funereal procession and heartbreak which leads to a genuine feeling of sadness breaking through the heat of the room with the closing beauty of Be Here. Fen (9) take to the stage after a short delay – Grungyn (not his real name…possibly) has been in the queue for beer – and after kicking things off with a couple of older tracks, they proceed to treat us to Dustwalker in full. And oh, how magnificent it is. Shimmering guitars, glorious drum beats and gorgeously harsh vocals courtesy of The Watcher usher in Consequence and moments of spine-tingling perfection that induce goosebumps despite the oppressive warmth of the front row ebb and flow through the morose Hands of Dust and Wolf Sun and continue through to the bittersweet end of their time tonight. Enchanting.

I also took a picture.

And I also reviewed Dustwalker for ThisIsNotAScene earlier this year.