Historical background:

OTUS SCOPS’s "Les Neiges éternelles" tape is not a demo – it was merely intended as a promo tape destined to be sent exclusively to record labels, but it ended up being a long overdue documentation of the band's existence and creative output.

The band, which had existed at least since 1992, had continuously faced line-up problems. The core trio of keyboards/synths, violin/vocals and drums, untypical for any metal band, was finally completed by a permanent guitar player in 1993. Before that, various guitar and bass players had come and gone. From the start, the electric violin used heavy distortion – as a guitar substitute (models: Mark Wood, Didier Lockwood), and the synths provided the foundation of the band's sound.
From the autumn of 1993 onwards, the bass guitar was supplied by R. Wurzer for all live gigs. And it is thanks to him that the line-up could be shaped into the one used on this recording, when the original drummer left: the trio of Wurzer/Gadner/Bachmaier provided an excellent rhythm section plus rhythm/solo guitar and saved the band from the certainty of a premature demise. A few concerts were played with this line-up in 1994, and following the release of the first ELEND album one month prior to the recording of “Les Neiges éternelles”, the band thought the time was convenient for finally trying to secure a record deal for OTUS SCOPS.

From the band’s repertoire, two epic compositions that best captured their sound were selected for this recording. Unfortunately, they were over a year old by that time: what once must have sounded extremely original had certainly lost most of its appeal by late 1994. In a similar vein, MY DYING BRIDE had firmly established themselves as undisputed masters – including the prominent use of an electric violin. It is ironic that the distorted violin, which had surely contributed to OTUS SCOPS’s originality, was completely dropped for this recording and all concerts during this last phase in the band’s existence. The violin still plays from start to finish on both compositions, making massive use of various effects, but due to the two guitars, which could provide the continuous stereo low end brutality a single guitar and violin simply could not, no violin distortion was deemed necessary any longer.

The rudimentary recording conditions did certainly not help at a time when bands generally went into a professional recording studio even for their demos: no serious record label seemed to be interested, so the band finally dissolved after one more gig was played in early 1995, with the musicians either moving back to their main bands, abandoning their instrument, or eventually venturing into other genres.

Technical details:

The music was recorded on two BASF Chrome Maxima II 60 cassettes (one cassette for each of the two compositions), using a Fostex Multitracker Model 280. All eight inputs were used to record the music on two of the four available tracks – everything was played live and recorded in the band’s rehearsal space on the evening of December 20th, 1994, except for the vocals and guitar solos, which were added (including all effects) on the two remaining tracks 24 hours later. The four tracks were mixed to DAT on the spot. Audio cassette copies of this DAT were then made during the following days and sent to the record labels.

Only a few cassette copies were sold to die-hard fans. Whatever versions circulate in the underground, they all stem from the same master tape (a second generation audio cassette copy of the DAT, made with an inferior double tape deck and not checked for errors), i.e., a very low quality rendition of the recording: wrong tape speed (too slow: about two semitones below the original), tape hiss, messed up panning and equalization. It is high time these pieces of music were presented in their original quality.

The very same Fostex machine was used to transfer the four tracks to hard disk in 2001, and once again in 2020, using gold-plated cables and analog/digital converters of much higher quality. The tapes had been professionally stored and were still in a pristine state in 2020 (as far as that can be the case with such audio cassettes…). The tracks were meticulously transferred and cleaned, slightly remixed where necessary, and remastered at the Tidefall studio in October 2020.

The downloadable high resolution audio files are in 24bit/44.1kHz. Due to the recording conditions and medium (magnetic tape), certain sonic artifacts have to be accepted as part of the sound.

As a bonus, additional versions (the live instrumental tracks containing the whole band without vocals or solos) of both compositions are made available here as well.

Thanks go out to all the individuals involved in this adventure – and to the fans who kept looking and asking for this nearly forgotten recording.