Farsot - Insects [2011]

Farsot--consisting of five members whose names are unknown and who’ve come together to spawn an interesting blend of sounds--hail from Germany, a country known for its grand thrash scene and overall evil sound in releases. Farsot deviate from this niche considerably, retaining little of that well-loved and widespread ‘evil’ sound, and they inject lots of progressive elements into their songwriting. This indeed makes their brand of black metal far more original than anything I’ve heard in quite a while, and if the word ‘progressive’ may turn you off, fear not; their sound cannot be described in only one word, as their music undergoes a very healthy dose of interesting and peculiar changes, but they do have a good way of still cleaving tightly to their black metal roots.

Their music is hardly comparable to any bands that I’ve heard in recent times; perhaps in some parts sounding more like Craft-esque crunchy and dissonant riffs, and in others having an immense jazz/progressive influence; the latter being clearly shown in the 10-minute-long “Empyrean,” or the completely un-metal in the strictest of terms “7.” They also lean towards a more atmospheric aura, and blend this surprisingly well with crunchier riffing, switching back and forth between these two styles and interweaving further different tendencies into their songs. They excel at songwriting, and sometimes they may even overdo the drastic sweeps of different sounds by changing them a whole lot; however, they make everything corroborate so well that you’re reminded that all of these different sounds are coming from the same package. There are also some riffs that tend to have more unorthodox patterns, eerie strumming and dissonant chords; all the while blending in crunchy and palm-muted segments too. The production is tight and, as with all of the instruments, perfectly well executed. A notable mention goes out to every one of the musicians in Farsot for their originality and blatant peculiarity of their music. And due to their incredible songwriting skills, the songs tend to drag on in length. Fortunately the songs contain waves of different patterns and plots and counterplots, and they, for the most part, keep the listener’s attention.

All of the instruments play a huge role in the development of their overall sound, and without any one of them, Farsot would not have been able to accomplish what they have in “Insects.” This is a release that has definitely left me in awe, if not only for their drastic changes of styles and how they differentiate greatly from other black metal bands today. That said, their music is not astounding either, even if it does have all of the previous mentions that I’ve given it; that is to say, so many different styles compressed into one, be it the crunchy or eerie or dissonant, chaotic, progressive, jazzy, etc., riffs. It’s quite obvious that the band put immense effort into this release, and it’s an odd one out amongst crowds of similar bands, to say the least. Despite all of the interesting qualities that it puts forth, I came out not completely overwhelmed, but somewhere in the middle; satisfied.

80/100

-SmithMetal84