Farsot

Farsot, a black metal outfit from Germany, earn the label of cryptic with ample justification. Like numerous peers in the same scene who favor corpse paint along with ominous monikers and fabricated credentials, the group rejected the use of real names yet pushed the practice further by adopting the coded aliases 10.XlXt on vocals, 3818.w and Pi: 1T 5r on guitars, v.03/170 on bass, and R 215k on drums. Their recordings follow the same inscrutable pattern, illustrated by the 2004 demo titled 042103freitod. The collective originated in 1999 within Germany’s Thruingia region and drew inspiration from pioneering atmospheric and black metal acts such as Satyricon and Katatonia. An initial demo, 2001’s Im Zwielicht, preceded the 2004 effort that secured a contract with Lupus Lounge. The band’s first full-length album, IIII, appeared in October 2007. Four years later they issued the more severe follow-up Insects, which incorporated avant-garde black metal textures. In 2017 the group returned with the intricate and enigmatic Fail·Lure, a work partly rooted in British director and artist Peter Greenway’s 1998 film Drowning by Numbers.