https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Fen Leave Footprints Along Trails Out of Gloom

Trails Out of Gloom, the fourth album by Vancouver, British Columbia-based proggers Fen is my first experience with the band. Their first record for Ripple Music, it’s a collection of melancholic, graceful, sincere melodies, in the vein of some of what Opeth reaches toward from time to time, but more in line with Judgement-era Anathema in its scope and casual straddling of the borders between different aspects of its sound, able to switch from heaviness to a more subtle presentation as smoothly as going one measure to the next. I get the sense this isn’t a sudden development for Fen, who’ve been together since 1998, and that their making it sound easy on Trails Out of Gloom is actually the result of years of work and growth. That’s usually how it goes, anyway.

The band is centered around its two founding guitarists, David Samuel Levin and Douglas Alan Harrison, who also provides the multiple layers of vocals that pop up on tracks like the Katatonia-esque “Find That One” and “The World is Young,” which reminds of Porcupine Tree’s darker moments without being entirely derivative. Trails Out of Gloom starts off with its title track, showing off the acoustic roots of Levin and Harrison’s songwriting and giving Harrison a chance to show off his formidable vocal range. It’s also one of the album’s first missteps, as Harrison reaches at times to a kind of falsetto wail that stands out awkwardly from the soothing music behind, not helped at all by being pushed so far forward in the mix. It doesn’t come up all the time, that is, he doesn’t do it on every song, but it holds back the otherwise driving later cut “End of the Dream” as well, and for a band four albums into their career, it’s a kind of surprising issue to take on, and I don’t doubt it’s one that could turn a lot of people off to Fen altogether.

There’s no shortage of drama in the nine tracks of Trails Out of Gloom, which is perhaps another reason I keep comparing them to European bands, but they have more rocking moments as well. “Through the Night” nods in the direction of the first OSI album and proves to be one of Fen’s high points for the record, and Harrison’s in terms of delivery. Perhaps having heavier guitar behind him is enough to make the difference; certainly there are instances where I find myself begging for more, thicker guitar to come through, closer, “In Your Arms” included. I’m not saying I want Harrison and Levin to break out the Sunn amps and start dooming out. It’s a mixing issue. The sounds are already there, it’s just a question of what’s proportional to what. More “loud,” please. Is there a way to turn up the “loud?”

Because it’s prog, I feel like a certain amount of self-indulgence has to be a given, and to their credit, Fen — rounded out by the capable, not flashy, rhythm section of bassist Mike Young and drummer Randall Stroll — never really offend in that regard, where they just as easily could have. If part of the mindset of prog is to be ever-progressing (which in the ideal, it is), Fen show on Trails Out of Gloom both that their will in this regard is headed in the right direction and that they indeed still have some maturing to do. For now, their fourth album is sure to win many friends among prog-heads out there looking for something in a wistful, contemplative vein, and while Fen might require a grain or two of salt, there are plenty of listeners for whom that’ll be a small price to pay for the band’s strengths.

Fen’s website

Ripple Music

Tags: , , ,

Leave a Reply