Bucharest Deathfest 2025 brought an incredibly original French band to Bucharest: Skaphos! A band that perfectly blends the aggression of death metal with ritualistic flavor of black metal and a touch of tribal echoes. A band with a great power of expression and a lot of energy… Taking into account the fact that the French are gearing up to release their new album, we couldn’t miss the chance to interview them!
DinIntunerec: Hello, thank you for getting on board with this interview and welcome to Romania. How are you guys? What have you been doing recently?
Theo: Hello, thank you for the interview. We are pretty fine and we are working for the next album, Cult of Uzura. Also, we are working on future tours, mainly in Europe. And of course, we’ve already started working on the fourth album.
Jeremy: Hello, we are delighted to be here, can’t wait for the show! I just wanted to add that in April we will be touring with Vader as a support band, which we are looking forward to, also.
Nathan: Hi there, we are really happy to come back to Romania, especially for Bucharest Deathfest. We were supposed to play last year, but because of some issues we couldn’t make it. So, Coro invited us again… gave us a second chance to play in this great festival. We love Romanian folks, really great crowd, so we are thrilled to be here.
DinIntunerec: How did Skaphos come together as a band? Could you tell us a bit about your origin story? Also, what does the name Skaphos mean, and how does it relate to the themes of your music?
Jeremy: At first, it was something simple and candid… just friends that made music. No big deal, we didn’t really intend to make it bigger. So, at first we were just having fun. About our band name, Skaphos… It means boat in Greek. It’s about the Styx, Charon and all the man who passed away at sea.
DinIntunerec: How has the French music scene influenced your sound? Are there any specific local artists or movements that have inspired you? What about international artists?
Nathan: Regarding French bands which served as inspiration, we can name some acts like Gojira, Svart Crown, or Necrowretch, while regarding international bands I can say we are very influenced by Hate, Behemoth, Vader and Inquisition.
DinIntunerec: Can you walk us through your creative process when composing new music? Do you start with lyrics, melodies, or riffs? Do you approach songwriting individually, or is it more of a collaborative effort within the band?
Stephan: So, we take everything very seriously into consideration… First, we start with the theme of the album, then the spirit and the imagery. Because Skaphos is first and foremost a live band… One of out main interests is about the image on stage, because our music is made to be played on stage. Then, we compose the riffs, the melodies and the song itself. Afterwards, we write the lyrics, at the end. We do everything altogether. Music is a work of unity. As a band, it’s really important for us to work like that.
DinIntunerec: You have a unique sound that blends various genres. How do you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard you before?
Theo: We take influences from both French and Polish black-death metal music. With a touch of US death metal, because we are all fans of the heavy and groovy riffs of Cannibal Corpse. We call our style Abyssal Death Metal because of the atmosphere our music creates both on recordings and on stage.
DinIntunerec: Some particular themes or concepts consistently appear in your music. Walk us through your thematic universe. Also, what are the non-musical influences, like books, movies, or visual art, that inspire your work?
Jeremy: Our music is about the ocean, the abyss, the underwater gods and the cults. We sing about the madness of men who got lost at sea. And all the people that were worshipping gods, tribal gods. There is a lot of literature that inspired us, of course Lovecraft, but also Jules Verne with 20,000 Miles Under the Sea and Melville’s Moby Dick. Also, a lot of movies about submarines. There is a lot around Le Chandeleur Submarine and the U-Boat…
There are a lot of old movies about submarines that we documented our music from. Also, what you can find in Cult of Uzura and in the next release, which I will talk about a bit later, is that we’ve got a lot of adventure like in movies. Think about Indiana Jones, but at sea. We want people to feel like they immerse into stories which have a lot of adventures, with horror and mysticism.
DinIntunerec: How do you feel about the evolution of music in your genre? Do you think there’s been a shift in direction, and where do you see it going?
Nathan: What we have noticed is that, especially in our country, the genre we play is kind of lost. There are less and less bands playing black/death metal, having props on the stage and so on. That’s the reason why we mostly tour in Europe and not specifically in France.
DinIntunerec: What have been some of the most memorable moments of your journey as a band so far?
Stephan: Well, we made a lot of tours. The first one was with Vader in Europe. Then we met, for example, Hate on that tour. We were on tour with Belphegor and I Am Morbid. We became really good friends with Hate from Poland. They helped us to step up also because back then we were kind of beginners in the professional scene.
Then, we went to Japan in 2023, with Batushka. That was really amazing. First time in Japan, completely different culture, different kind of crowd. Also, our first live in Quantic was three years ago as a support for Marduk. It was a really, really great moment. In general, in all Romanian cities it was great, we played in Cluj-Napoca and the crowd was super sick. Extremely active and crazy, while we are playing on stage. Very welcoming… we’ve got a lot of good memories.
DinIntunerec: Your music has evolved over time. In what ways do you feel you’ve grown as artists?
Theo: We’ve been growing as a band, as artists and as individuals as well. We always learn and share so much on the road. It’s touring that makes Skaphos grow, because we write music with the purpose of playing it live and with each show we become better, come up with new ideas. We’re always searching for better ways of expressing ourselves and it is on stage that we acknowledge what doesn’t work.
DinIntunerec: Are there any particular challenges that Skaphos has faced along the way that have helped shape who you are as a band?
Nathan: Well, there is little in this direction that comes to mind. Last year we lost our truck, that’s why we couldn’t play at Bucharest Deathfest 2024. I don’t know if I can count this as a shaping challenge… because it just put us on a short hiatus from live shows, it didn’t have another impact on us. So, being unable to travel and go on stage, we concentrated on other activities. We wrote an album, we recorded it, we made several music videos. So, we had to change some plans a little bit, because of this challenge. By the way, this is the first live show since then, so we just can’t wait to go on stage.
DinIntunerec: How do you handle the balance between staying true to your roots while still evolving and experimenting with new sounds?
Stephan: Actually, we don’t care that much about the roots. We are constantly looking forward to the future and to what we will do. Because we believe that’s what matters as an artist.
DinIntunerec: What’s the most unexpected or fun experience you’ve had while performing live?
Theo: I remember a moment in Brno, Czech Republic when someone just jumped on stage and almost broke the mic stand. He was beaten by the stage guard and he had blood in his face. That person was completely drunk and acted like a crazy guy.
Jeremy: In Poland there are also a lot of people who act like crazy… The organizers put a lot of barriers or fences to keep the crowd away from the stage. However some guys hold on the barriers and scream, but we count these reactions as good ones… they get crazy because they enjoy our show!
DinIntunerec: You’re about to release a new album, in May, via Transcending Obscurity Records. Tell us a few things about the concepts behind this new album, the unusual title, Cult of Uzura, and the incredible artwork.
Nathan: Regarding Cult of Uzura, we consciously decided to take our music to the next level… a professional level, if I may call it that way. So, we worked a lot on every aspect of the music, of the artwork, or the visuals. We also wanted to blend some black metal elements and occult/tribal style into our music. What is more, we added some choirs and samples. Also, some percussion. We also decided to change the live performance, to have more of a ritual imagery that wasn’t there before.
DinIntunerec: I’ve noticed the artworks of your previous releases are totally different… they are more simplistic in nature and obviously, in black and white. This time, Skaphos came up with a totally different approach…
Jeremy: For the first two albums we worked with a friend, she is a designer and she drew the first cover artworks. I must confess that being at the beginning of our journey, at that point we didn’t care too much about the artwork. But we love what she made for us so we asked her to draw the second one too. They are black and white and then white and black because the two albums are the same story.
The first album, Bathyscaphe, is about a submarine going underwater where it crashed and woke the divinity. Its name is Thooï. Which is the name of our second album. So both are linked, that’s why we made the switching colors and the same art style.
Stephan: I just wanted to add that this time we wanted to become more professional in every aspect of the album. So, we decided to find a really good and well known painter, thus we asked Paolo Gerardi to make something that fits the quality of the production and the riffing. We explained what the album is about and he came up with the cover artwork that you have been asking about.
DinIntunerec: There’s an element of mystery and mythology in your music. What inspired the conceptual direction of this album, and how did you incorporate those elements into the music?
Stephan: The concept of this album is inspired by the myths of Charon and ritual sea mythology in general. So, we took inspiration from different cultures that we have heard stuff about. For example, the ancient Greeks, they had a special cult about the sea, on one of their islands. They used to make sacrifices to the god of the sea, for example, stuff like that. We added drums and tribal singing on it, so that it fitted to what we wrote.
Jeremy: What we were looking was to get more on the human side of the cult. The two first albums were about the ocean, but more of the creatures, the abyss, the darkness. This upcoming album is more about the human mind and about the way the human can mystify something, worship something that it just fears because the sea was one of the biggest concepts related to the unknown. That’s what we wanted to point out on this album.
DinIntunerec: The album blends various elements of metal and atmospheric soundscapes. Can you walk us through how you approached combining these genres to create something unique?
Theo: Yes, it’s the first time we work that much on an album. We made a lot of tests. We rewrote maybe three times the album and we had so many songs… but we had to settle for 13. Fortunately, we had some help from major artists that gave us really good advice because they explained to us what we lacked.
Jeremy: We received very good advice, because we listened to the album so many times that we couldn’t really look at it from a distance, objectively… We kind of needed an input from a fresh year.
Theo: Help came from an artist outside the black /death metal genres. We got help from the singer of Igorrr, Jean-Baptiste Le Bail and from Erik, the singer of Vomitory. It really helped us, you know, growing as artists and making our music what it is right now.
DinIntunerec: Tell us a few things about the song Abyssal Tower, about the concept, the symbolism, and the video you released not so long ago.
Jeremy: So, Abyssal Tower is the story of an antique tower that had got all the knowledge and power. It’s almost like the tower is the origin of everything, maybe like the Tour of Babel, or the library in Egypt. This tower goes under water and someday it will rise to announce the cleanse of the Earth, the apocalypse. The video clip is about an old guy telling the story to the future generations so this legend never dies.
DinIntunerec: Your lyrics are often dense and poetic. What do you hope listeners take away from the lyrical themes of Cult of Uzura?
Nathan: Well, the lyrics have always been a difficult thing for us because we were not very good writers at first. So, we tried to keep it simple and straight forward with what came through our minds.
Jeremy: During the writing process, actually, Stéphan used to sing like a demo, but just screams, so we could get the rhythm of the singing and after that we wrote over it.
Stephan: Like a top line, like rappers make top lines and afterwards they put some lyrics on it, cause I wanted to create a real rhythm that fits to the music, one that has a special flair. After that, we put the lyrics on it, so it’s really made on the top line. Vocals is like an instrument as well.
Jeremy: It is funny because we’ve always had difficulty with writing the lyrics and I saw a video of David Townsend saying that he was writing the music and just singing la la la la la, really random stuff and after that he said, oh, it feels like I’m saying this. I found this way of working really funny, but it appears to be really the best way of working for us.
DinIntunerec: I think it is your first collaboration with Transcending Obscurity Records, if I am not mistaken. Tell us how this collaboration came about.
Stephan: Well, it’s our first time on a label, we are still working on the release, so we don’t know yet how much it will benefit us but it’s our first time with Transcending Obscurity. We decided to make everything by ourselves until now because it was, I think, the best choice. A lot of labels are dying and a lot of bands start to quit labels to make their own thing, but we really wanted to try, especially for this album, to see if it goes more viral and that aiming it could reach more people. So, that’s it for now, we will see how it goes in the future.
DinIntunerec: Your previous release, Thooï has a very distinctive sound. Can you share the inspiration behind the album and how it evolved from your previous work? Also, the album’s title, Thooï, is intriguing. Can you explain the meaning behind it and its significance to the themes explored in the album?
Theo: Thooï is an abyssal god we entirely made up. Like all our mystic Pantheon. This god was awakened by the submarine from the first album, Bathyscaphe. Undoubtedly, Bathyscaphe is more black and raw While Thooï is more epic. It’s still raw, but more epic and godly. We were still looking for a style, we were experimenting stuff but with Cult of Uzura, we think we really found ourselves both in music and ambiance and theme.
DinIntunerec: On Thooï you blend elements of post-metal, ambient, and experimental sounds. How would you describe the musical direction of this album compared to your earlier releases? Also, the album has a dark, atmospheric quality. Was there a particular mood or atmosphere you were trying to capture while creating it?
Jeremy: Since Bathyscaphe was our first album we did as Skaphos, we were still learning and experimenting. For Thooï, it’s the first time when Stefan and I, as both guitarists, we started to really work together on the songs and since we got different tastes, it ended up with some strange mixing and with the idea of the god emerging from the sea. We ended up with all those melodies and ambiance, blending with black /death metal violence. It was maybe a strange time of our lives and I don’t remember all the details. But for Thooï, we also had the help of one of our friends who made the record and the mixing and I guess he did a very good job mixing and he gave Thooï all the sound design it has.
DinIntunerec: The lyrics on Thooï explore deep, often existential themes. What were some of the key ideas or concepts you were trying to express through the lyrics on this album? What about the cover artwork?
Jeremy: For Thooï, we already talked about the artwork. There is a small detail I also want to mention. You can see the submarine of Bathyscaphe. A small details to link both albums. About the lyrics, they are a bit fast written. We are not really proud of the first two album lyrics because we didn’t put much energy into that part. It is not something we enjoy as much as the music creation process. Moreover, we are thinking of doing a rework of the first two albums, the best songs so we can share to people what we really intended to do, but didn’t put enough effort in.
DinIntunerec: Our journey back in time finally brought us to your debut album. Tell us a few words about Bathyscaphe, about its creation process, the lyrical concepts behind the album and of course the cover artwork.
Theo: So, Bathyscaphe was four friends making music for fun. At that time, we didn’t do this seriously. All we wanted was to go on stage. We wrote the album quickly so we could get quickly on stage. Because from the very beginning we have really been a live band. We think that music should be played on stage, not in our bedroom or garage.
DinIntunerec: Could you explain how all the elements in the music help to build the atmosphere? Also, what does a good atmosphere mean to you?
Nathan: Well, like Théo just said, we really want to be a live band. So, when it comes to the atmosphere, everyone will see tonight on stage what we can deliver. Hopefully, people will get caught in our cult and ritualist imagery. We hope it will be great. Anyway, I don’t know if words can describe atmosphere… actually I guess a show is better than words.
DinIntunerec: What is the most important life lesson that you have learned so far?
Stephan: The most important lesson is to keep going, to never stop. Making music is hard stuff, being an artist is not easy. Yet, every show is the best reward. And if you make mistakes, learn from them and go on… never give up!
Theo: Another important lesson is never to be afraid to ask questions. There will always be better musicians, better bands playing on the same stage or at the same events as you. So, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions about every work process. Take some information from each band, and each guy you meet. Make a mix and try to step up in your own music.
DinIntunerec: Thank you for your time, any final words for our readers?
Jeremy: First of all, I want to say thank you for the interview and the so in depth questions you came up with.
Secondly, I’ll sum up the essential: we’ve got the third album on pre-sales on the label Transcendent Obscurities. Check our music. Go check our video, not only the music because we try to tell stories with the videos. We got a long length movie going on which will be a one hour long movie with music. You can find the project on our Facebook page, but you will see about that at some point, this year I guess. We will try to make a lot of content this year.
However, mostly I want to thank you for the review you made on our upcoming album. It was really cheerful, we really enjoyed it. We really like it. It’s one of the best rewards we can get when people talk about our music and say good stuff. Also, hope you will enjoy the show tonight!
Stephan: I also want to thank you so much because you really took the time to listen to everything and to make great questions that really fit to what we actually are. Thank you!
