In 2011, Germany’s farsot. followed up their 2007 release “IIII” with “Insects”, a psychologically disturbing work of Black Metal. To find out about the band’s outlook and music, Andrew Doherty interviewed 10.XIXt, the vocalist.
Ave Noctum: Hello there, and thank you for taking part in this interview for Metal Team UK. I guess there are people out there who don’t know about farsot. so can I start by asking what your band brings to the world?
10.XIXt: We’re trying to create unique music based upon the musical sub-genre which brought us together more than 12 years ago – we´re talking about Black Metal. farsot. began to pay tribute to it in the more traditional way. Our first demo-CD “042103freitod” in 2004 was a first impression, where we began discovering the sides of Black Metal. With growing musical skills and horizons our music got more and more open-minded, which showed on our debut “IIII” in 2007. “Insects” has progressed to further paths. It was heavily influenced by sub-genres such as Doom, Grunge, Sludge and Progressive – but it kept close to Black Metal. This is what we have brought to the world up to now. Nobody knows what we will bring to the world in the future…
Ave Noctum: I sense that you can be very deliberate and mechanical in your thinking. Even the names of your band members – v.03/170, Pi: IT 5r, 10.XIXt etc – seem to come from the world of computer programming. Would “deliberate and mechanical” be appropriate words to describe you?
10.XIXt: No. Maybe we don’t do anything ill-considered (some people might see it a bit differently … he he) but I wouldn’t describe us as “mechanical”. The pseudonyms are more to be seen as the integration of our overall concept. When we released our demo CD we deliberated at most (in this case) about how to announce the band members without using our real names or creating some kooky fantasy-inspired alter egos. So we simply decided to encrypt our real names (mostly the initials) into these meaningless letters and numbers.
Ave Noctum: For your 2007 work “IIII”, you clearly laid down the themes of Hatred, Fear, Death and Mourning within the text. How would you define the thematic development between “IIII” and “Insects”?
10.XIXt: There was no concrete development between the lyrics of “IIII” and “Insects”. Both concepts are at first sight completely different from one another but both grapple with the human psyche – indeed from a different point of view. You don’t want to read the same book again and again. You´re longing for variety. So we did. “Insects” is just another way of expressing the human frailty. This time we were the observers of the affected people instead of being the affected people themselves.
Ave Noctum: The impression I have of your music is that rather than bludgeoning listeners with heaviness, bleakness or anti-religious feeling, as is common with Black Metal, there’s a profoundly psychological side to your work in which you create rhythmic patterns to suck people into listening before surrounding them with ghastliness and horror. Is this the way you see it?
10.XIXt: Such feelings are really subjective. Everyone makes their own experiences when listening to an album. But yes, you are completely right. It becomes a more rhetorical question for us. Of course, we’re always trying to create an absorbing and haunting aura within our songs. It is the only way to evoke the true force in music. You mostly don’t need any blast-beats, weird staccato-riffing or whatever else to incite people or to make sure they listen.
Ave Noctum: What do want and expect the listener’s reaction to be when listening to “Insects”?
10.XIXt: We truly don’t expect anything. It depends really strong upon the mood of the listener. He will experience by himself what “Insects” conjures up in his mind. And he alone is able to decide by himself, when it is the right time to listen to it. I am really into “Panzerfaust” but I can’t listen to it all day, you know? “Insects” is really dense and heavy. You can’t grab it after the first two spins. So maybe we could “expect” interest and attention from the listener.
Ave Noctum: Do you consciously cultivate an atmosphere of fear, and re-work it?
10.XIXt: No. Eh, No! Fear is an omnipresent topic, especially in our genre but it’s definitely no leitmotif for us.
Ave Noctum: I detect a number of musical elements within “Insects”: riffage, pace changes, melodic continuity, sound effects including samples and uncompromising, scary vocal structures. What was the musical basis from which you built up the album?
10.XIXt: The album was written in the usual way. The main riffs were created by our rhythm guitarist. He and our drummer wove the skeletons for most of the songs. Everything else was a matter of arrangement, creativity and diligence. Most of the ideas for the add-ons (like samples and effects) arose during the progression of song-writing. Indeed a really boring – but for us generally the most effective – work flow. Ha Ha.
Ave Noctum: You spent 4 years creating “Insects”. This is a long time. Was this because you get stuck on a particular area or were you constantly thinking up and adding ideas, or was it something more mundane like not having the time?
10.XIXt: We’re all occupied beside farsot., or better to say, farsot. is a band which fortunately has room to exist beside our regular occupations. We had several gigs during this period and participated in two tours. It always takes a lot of time to rehearse for gigs and tours, time which wasn’t able to be used for song writing. Furthermore we’re not in a hurry. Our music has to breathe and needs time for a gentle kind of development …
Ave Noctum: In terms of style, I feel a similar in atmosphere between your work and that of your fellow countrymen Dark Fortress, in particular with their album “Séance”. Is this purely coincidental?
10.XIXt: Absolutely. We like Dark Fortress a lot. We became good friends over the years. V Santura has recorded with us on “IIII” and we played a tour together in 2010. But we – and I’m really confident they too – don’t see that many parallels between “Insects” and the work of Dark Fortress. They are way more melodic and direct with a complete different sound. It’s like comparing apples with pears, he?! But don’t worry about it. You aren’t alone with this thought. Maybe we do sound a bit like them in the end. I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter.
Ave Noctum: Do you find inspiration in the originators of Black Metal – Mayhem, Darkthrone, Celtic Frost or Bathory, for example?
10.XIXt: I personally started to listen to Celtic Frost with the release of the “Monotheist” album. I know classics like “Into the Crypt of Rays” or “Circle of the Tyrants” for sure. They recorded a couple of really good songs but they were never influential for me (and the rest of the band) – as Bathory never were either. Darkthrone and Mayhem are massively influential for farsot. Their complete discographies (except the Darkthrone-Punk-Era) are quite essential.
Ave Noctum: There’s something of a soundtrack about parts of “Insects”. Do you watch horror movies or find inspiration in other artistic genres such as literature?
10.XIXt: “Insects” is inspired by literary works of authors like Brown, Gass, Kafka and Herbert. Herbert´s “Hellstrom’s Hive” itself was inspired by “The Hellstrom Chronicle”, a documentary film from the 70´s. It inspired me massively during the work on the album lyrics and its concept. It is about insects and fused with some science-fiction elements. These elements were integrated through the strange theories and apocalyptic world views of Dr. Hellstrom, a fictional scientist, who guides the viewer through the whole document. He tries to prove and believes that he knows why the insects will survive mankind. I’ve also seen some cool (B-)movies for inspiration (Phase IV, Them!, The Deadly Mantis among others).
Ave Noctum: How are you promoting “Insects”?
10.XIXt: Well, we have a good working label in the background. They mainly undertake the promotion the album as much as they can. We can rely on them. They also have a good distribution network, which means you can buy the album almost everywhere (Amazon, Mediamarkt, Itunes, Musicload, EMP, The End, Season of Mist, …). Our part is to take part in a lot of interviews for promotion and to promote the album by playing live. We´re already confirmed for some fine gigs and festivals this year.
Ave Noctum: “Insects” is like a story and as far as I’m aware, the first time this subject has been used as a musical centrepiece as well as a deep-seated exposé of human weakness. What’s the logical development beyond “Insects” for your next work?
10.XIXt: I don’t know. Let’s go back to question number two: We aren’t “mechanical”. At this point we haven’t thought that far. We´re glad that “Insects” is released and that we have some more time for different things in life. We need a little break (besides the live shows) to refocus and to figure out what´s next.
Ave Noctum: What plans and projects does farsot. have for 2012?
10.XIXt: There are no concrete plans. We will try to play some good gigs and we will slowly start writing new material for sure.
Ave Noctum: Do you have an ultimate goal for the band? If so, what is it?
10.XIXt: Our goal is to go on. Wherever the road will take us …
Ave Noctum: Finally, is there anything that you would like to say to readers of Metal Team UK?
10.XIXt: Thanks for your support! To all the organizers in the UK: Please bring us to your stages …
Ave Noctum: On behalf of Ave Noctum, I’d like to thank you once again both for your work and for this interview, and hope we’ll see you in the UK soon. All the best for the future!
For more on the band check out
Leave a Reply