Scaphandre are the brainchild of a Frenchmen who calls himself Spasme. He formed the project in 2011 and one year later, Scaphandre self-released two EP’s, one at the very beginning of that year and one at the end of 2012. I will review both of them. First this. Both of them were originally self-released, but now they will be re-issued via Misandreproductions.
Late November 2012 saw the release of the second Scaphandre-EP, {The Abyssal Crypts}, which is limited to an edition of 200 copies only. Despite lyrics in Spasme’s mother tongue, i.e. French, the title is not in French but in English, and that’s somewhat confusing. But since I’m a big boy, I can handle…
Anyway, this one lasts for forty three minutes (once again four tracks that last in between nine and twelve minutes). Still entirely taken care of by Spasme, this Scaphandre-recording is very sober yet oh so perfect when it comes to layout. No fuzz, no blood-splattered cover, just blackness with integer art…
In general, the whole concept is comparable to Les Ancres, the former Scaphandre-recording. This goes for the sound, song structures, performance and atmosphere. {The Abyssal Crypts} might be less burzumesque, and the general approach is more focused on depression and self-mutilation, but still this is a fabulous collection of anti-life propaganda, a soundtrack meant for those who consider the human being as a sickness and [oops, I need to self-censor myself right now, for it isn’t pretty what I want to add]. The main difference might be the intensity. This album is much, much more brutal than its predecessor, for the structural part is heavier, more straight-forward, and less slow. There are some ‘new’ elements too, like little epic choirs and acoustic dreamscape-intermezzos.