Taken from three tracks included in the band’s 2016 split with international post-black contemporaries Sleepwalker, Stone & Sea is a tribute to the crumbling coastlines of Eastern England and the spirits that lie restless beneath the waters. Recorded, produced and re-mastered specifically for vinyl by Greg Chandler (Esoteric, Lychgate, Grave Miasma, Fluisteraars), these tracks take the best aspects of post-rock and black metal and intertwine key elements of traditional folk to create a masterpiece laced with a definite touch of the “epic.”
For over a decade, FEN have steadily developed into one of the most intriguing bands within the UK black metal scene. Often bracketed within the post-black and “shoegaze” movements, the London trio’s sound is actually more unique to themselves – a startling paradox of searing and aggressive paradox within a progressively daring and ambient beauty.
Starting out with a pastoral form of atmospheric black metal on 2009’s acclaimed debut The Malediction Fields, the trio’s sound has expanded and diversified considerably across five full-length albums to embrace a number of different elements all honed and synthesized into a distinctive, yet captivating, soundscape.
In late 2015, the band recorded a three-track EP, entitled Stone and Sea, a deliberate hearken back to their older, more explosive, sound whilst retaining the maturity the English trio had developed across the years. The intention was to record something ‘for themselves,’ to escape from the album cycle for a time and work on a self-contained piece.
Eisenwald now proudly presents this unique recording as a limited-edition 180-gram vinyl MLP, which includes new album art illustrated by Alasdair Dunn of Immortalpict Illustration. Fans of the band’s earlier works, such as Ancient Sorrow, will find much to appreciate here while those who admire the trio’s more recent releases will enjoy a more immediate interpretation of the FEN sound.
FEN at the time of recording:
The Watcher – guitars, vocals
Grungyn – bass, bodhran, vocals
Derwydd – drums, frame drum, shaker
FEN currently is:
The Watcher – guitars, vocals
Grungyn – bass, vocals
Havenless – drums, percussion
https://www.facebook.com/fenofficial/
https://fenuk.bandcamp.com
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Fen/92603
https://store.eisenton.de/fen-a-720
