Bio

Hi Folks!

Here is Kai from DEPRESSION, and I want to tell you a few things about us. This is the history of DEPRESSION from the very beginning until today: The band was started back in 1989. My former bandsGods of Grind and Mortuus weren't very active at that time, so I wrote a couple of songs on my own. I wanted to play in a band that combined the brutal power and heaviness of Death Metal with the incredible speed and kick-ass structures of Grindcore. But in my area there were no musicians who wanted to join such an uncompromising project, so I wrote a couple of songs for my own and DEPRESSION was born as a one-man "band". I released these songs on the first demo "Tal der Tränen" (1990). This was more Noisecore than Grind, but I was on the right path. It was the first recording I ever made, so it was really bad and only a few friends got a copy!

In the year of 1992 it was time for my second demo "Vergessene Welten". It was a lot better than "Tal der Tränen", especially the sound and the layout. The music style shifted more to Grindcore with some Death Metal influences. I sold some tapes in Germany, but without much promotion and only for a short time.

In 1993 there were enough songs finished for another demo and this time I tried to find a vocalist for DEPRESSION, because I didn't like my growling. I found the perfect shouter in Marc Miekeley. He really liked my music and so he joined DEPRESSION. Since 1993 DEPRESSION was a two-piece-band! Marc has written most of the lyrics on the third demo "...in Verzweiflung". It was Death Metal with Grindcore influences. This demo was spread all over the world and we got nice responses from the fans and the critics (certainly not from all, but most of them). Due to various reasons (we both joined Dismal) it got very quiet around the DEPRESSION camp after this demo. Well, in 1995, after a long break of two years, DEPRESSION were back! A lot of fans asked us about those old demo tapes, but we don't sell them anymore. Marc and I both still like the old stuff and so we had the idea to release the three demos again (new recorded and with new layout) on our fourth demo "Erinnerungen". This tape was really a big success, as the two different editions we made (400 copies altogether) are sold out and we got a lot of cool new underground contacts.

In Autumn of 1996 we released our debut 7" EP, "Ein Hauch von Moder" on Gulli Records. We were really satisfied with this EP. We got absolutely fantastic reactions and responses from the underground world-wide, and needless to say it was a huge step forward for DEPRESSION! This EP was limited to 800 copies and it was pressed on purple vinyl and we pay tribute to one of our main inspirations, Blood, with the song "Dogmatize". But instead of resting on this success we carried on with DEPRESSION to keep on corrupting the world with "groovy Death/Grind". And so, in late summer of 1997, "Böses Blut" (a split-CD with the gods Agathocles) came out of the dark! This was certainly the pinnacle in the history of DEPRESSION at the time, a dream come true, you could say! I'm still very satisfied with the whole CD. The songs, the sound and the layout are very nearly perfect to me. This time we covered "Thy Beauty" from Grindcore legends Fear Of God. With this release, we reached so many freaks on the globe who hadn't heard something from us before. The very positive letters showed us that there was still an active and enthusiastic underground scene for such brutal music!

At the end of 1997, we released a new split 7" EP, "Die Zeiten ändern sich" with German grinders Maggot Shoes. It was strictly limited to 500 hand-numbered pieces of orange-coloured vinyl and it is well within the DEPRESSION style and attitude. Some people said that this was the best recording from DEPRESSION so far and I still like it, too (and not only because of our crazy version of "Heart Of Illinois" from Impetigo!). To have a good start in 1998, Hierba Records unleashed a DEPRESSION split-tape with the Spanish Noise-Grindcore band Hierba. Our part contains really old rehearsals and party-live recordings. There are really funny versions of Impetigo's "Boneyard" and Blood's "Dogmatize"...don't take it seriously, it's pure fucking Noise and a cool remembrance to the ancient times...Enjoy or die!

There were still a few songs left from the "Ein Hauch von Moder" studio-session '96, so in April of 1998 we finally released these songs on the "Ein Hauch von Moder Part II" split 7" EP with German gore-deathers Rejectamenta. In the vein of our debut EP in 1996, this split-EP is limited to 500 hand-numbered copies and was a return to our roots. It's a typical DEPRESSION release the way we like it. Similar to our debut EP, it was pressed on purple vinyl and the cover is also a negative of an ancient ruin.

Time goes on and at the first day of 1999, we split the 10" LP "Und keiner weint uns nach" with the Brazilian Grindcore-legends Rot, released on Deadly Art Production. To me, this release was quite important for DEPRESSION. And it seems that the fans liked this piece of music, too, because the first edition of 666 hand-numbered green-coloured vinyl sold out very quickly and so did the second pressing on blue vinyl as well. We dismembered "Suicide Fuck" from Abscess on this record because Chris Reifert and Autopsy are one of my all-time-faves. This DEPRESSION stuff is more Death Metal-influenced than the previous stuff and I suppose it was the heaviest release DEPRESSION had ever made...at least for the time being! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! In Autumn 1999, DEPRESSION celebrated their ten-year anniversary! So we released on the 1st day of January in the year 2000 (again on Deadly Art) our first full-length album "Chronische Depression" on CD and in spring as a limited two-coloured LP. It was a present to ourselves (and maybe to a few of you as well). It contains a bunch of new songs, the obligatory cover version (this time, "Bloodcraving" from the godly Mortician), the outstanding song "Depressionen" and as a bonus, one song from each DEPRESSION release in the last ten years! We thought it was time for a little break...and so it took more than a year to fuck the mainstream with the next sign of life!

But since X-mas-day 2001 the Split-CD "Zur Stille finden" with the lunatics from Haemorrhage is available (on Cudgel Agency) containing ten new tunes of devastating groovy Death/Grind from DEPRESSION. This time "Enough" from Agathocles is the cover-song and I suppose this recording is the most groovy one for us so far. By the way, it is the first output featuring Ron Sanders on guttural grunts!! He is a friend of us for a long time (former Dismal shouter) and his vocal-style fits perfectly to Marc´s eruptions! It's time for a new release in 2002! So we did the split-EP "Schatten" with German goremongers Gonorrhoeaction (again on Cudgel Agency). The 8 DEPRESSION songs (including "Radio Hit" from Anal Cunt) are totally back to the roots!! The tracks are fast, more brutal and raw as fuck! The vocal-battles between Marc and Ron are brilliant, and we are all very satisfied and happy with this release!

2003, our debut EP "Ein Hauch von Moder" is sold out since a long time now, and also the second part of this session, the split-EP with Rejectamenta isn´t available anymore. But people were (and are) still asking for this stuff, so we deceided to re-release the complete studio-session from 1996 again, for the very first time on CD format! All songs are re-mastered and see, refreshed , the light of day as a 4-way split-CD together with Meatknife, Intestinal Infection and New York Against The Belzebu, released on German underground label Noise Varriations. But not enough: The long-time-sold-out split-Tape with Hierba was only available for a short time and there were only a few copies every made, so we took the offer from Noise V to release some of these old rehearsal/live songs totally re-mastered as a split-7" with Intestinal Infection!! Feel the ancient spirit again!! Finally, in 2004, the long awaited split-CD with Mesrine reached the Depression-headquarter!! 2+2=5 Records from Brazil released this brandnew studio stuff, including "Hate the Kids" from Turbonegro and "Behram" from Mesrine (btw, Mesrine doing a cover from Depression´s "The Mangler" on this record !). These songs are typical Depression stuff, but as we act as a three-piece for some time now, you can feel that the songs -with the vocals- are more "compact". We all are very satisfied with the release!!! Depression is still fast, heavy and brutal after almost 15 years of existence... Power It Up Records released the LP version! First 500 copies are limited coloured vinyl !! The second 500 LPs are black. It is great to have this release on both formats, CD and LP.

Friday, 17th of September 2004 is a historical day in the career of DEPRESSION !! We played our VERY FIRST gig at the "Deathfest" to celebrate our 15-year-anniversary!! It was a cool night and a big party with our fans! Thanks to everyone who stand in front of the stage and raised his fist to us !! You rule !! 2005: 15 YEARS OF GROOVY DEATH/GRIND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To us it is almost unbelievable: DEPRESSION celebrates its 15th anniversary of existence!!! It all started in autumn 1989 and in 1990 I released the first Tape. Now, 15 years later in 2005 we are still there and still play this underground dedicated style of extreme music!! This is a present to ourselves, and to all DEPRESSION-maniacs out there and everyone who supported us in the last years in any way. I´m glad that we survived and who knows, hopefully we carry on for the next decate!! Because of the huge demand from fans , year for year, we decided to re-release the long sold-out split-CD DEPRESSION / AGATHOCLES through Power It Up Records. The new version is re-mastered, so the new sound is straight in your face. Also the layout has minor changes, it is just slightly up-dated. Both bands are very happy, that this underground-jewel see the light of day again, after almost 8 years of silence. But of course it is also time for some new stuff !! At the first day of September 2005, the split-EP "Der Weg des Wassers" with german old-school Death Metal lunatics FLESHRIPPER was released by Morbid Reallity Records from the US!! This underground jewel is limited to 500 copies (100 in orange vinyl!!) and contains three new songs from us, including "Vagina Berserker" from GUT! It is still very important for DEPRESSION to release vinyls!!

NOW it´s time for the 15-years-anniversary-album!! At the 11.11.2005, the double-CD-Digipak was released through Cudgel Agency!! 15 years after the beginning of DEPRESSION and 10 years after the "Erinnerungen" Demo, we re-released it for the first time on CD, and offer you also a brand-new CD. "Das Relikt" contains all 22 songs form the Demo totally new recorded in the studio in 2005!I There are also 2 bonus tracks, of course a coverversion: "Underestimation" from Defecation, and "Depressionen Part II" as the second part of the trilogy. The 28-pages booklet includes all lyrics, the history, a lot rare photos, linernotes from every band-member and other shit!! ENJOY!!!

Another year, another release. So in the first week of January 2006 Power It Up Records released the DEPRESSION / AGATHOCLES split-album first time on LP !! Both bands are looking for that release for almost 9 years now! The LP is limited to 500 copies and has a different, totally new coverartwork !! A collectors item indeed and a gift to all vinyl-worshippers around. So DEPRESSION is ready to conquer the Asian market !! With the official split-tape DEPRESSION / MESRINE, limited to 400 hand-numbered copies, Slava Production released our debut for the Eastern South in summer 2006!! Watch out for this jewel, as only very few MCs will make their way over the big sea to Europe. To complete our history a bit more, Power It Up Records also released the succesfull album DEPRESSION / HAEMORRHAGE (in autumn 2006) first time on limited vinyl ! The sound is re-mastered for an even bigger brutality. The complete layout is improved with a new cover and innersheet. The first 100 copies comes in clear blue vinyl. GREAT!! Due to the success of the first asian MC release, Roots Active Records signed us for the official Tape-version of the DEPRESSION / AGATHOCLES split-album!! Different artwork, remastered sound, limited to 400 copies, it is worth to be in your collection. This item was also the last release of the 15th-year-anniversary-re-release-series in 2006. Another chapter was also closed in 2006, and it was a short one: The live-activity from DEPRESSION found their final performance at the AJZ Bahndamm in Wermelskrichen (to round it up perfectly), after 10 incredible stage demolitions, at October, 28th due to private circumstances. It was only a short period, but it was an adventure that we all will never forget!! Thanks to your fans to party with us all the time!!

But DEPRESSION would not be DEPRESSION if we hadn´t a new release in a new year! In 2007, it is the first live-CD from us ever! The audio-document from our final gig was released at the last day of August, 2007 as "Ein kakophonischer Lebenshauch" on Apathic View Productions from Germany. Besides the gig, the CD contains the exclusive studio-bonus-track "DalaiDahmer", liner notes and the typical untypical DEPRESSION layout. A proof of a rare evening.

2008 will be a good year for DEPRESSION! We start with a double-release at the date of February, 22nd with the split-CD with the swedish old-school legend PAGANIZER. 10 brand new studio-songs from DEPRESSION since quite a while. The new stuff is typical old school Death/Grind, but this time with a bit more variety in structure, speed and riffs. A few surprising songs included, beside "Artefacted Irreligion", a coversong from UK-pioneers Benediction. This CD contains the DEPRESSION video-clip "Leichenduft" and was released by Suffer Productions from Germany. The second strike of this double-release is a split 7"EP with the grindcore veterans from France: INHUMATE. The high-quality packed piece of vinyl ("real" cover, extra inner sheet) contains three DEPRESSION neckbreakers with "Mentally Murdered" from Napalm Death as traditional tribute-song. The EP is limited to 500 copies, and Power It Up is once again the label who is responsible for that shit. With a delay of three (!) years, the first day of May 2008 was finally the official release-date of the MC/Tape version of "Das Relikt"!! Once again, Slava Productions from Thailand released this jewel, limited to 500 hand-numbered copies with pro-pressed and pro-printed MC and full-coloured, pro-printed booklet with 10 pages! You´ll get the complete new recorded versions from 2005 plus the two bonus tracks, as Disc One from the original Digipak-release. Already a rare collectors item, as there are only a couple of this tapes available in Europe. Watch out!! 2009 starts with a nice release: The long delayed split-MC DEPRESSION / PAGANIZER was released on the very first day of January 2009 on the brazilian label Cauterized Productions. It has a nice full-coloured, printed booklet and a different artwork than the CD version. The limited edition of 500 copies will be a collectors item soon, as only a small amount will reach the European market. We are very glad, that this nice piece of musick is now also available in the underground format. Long awaited, long delayed, finally released: "Eine Rückbesinnung", the vinyl-compilation-CD. here you get all our vinyl-only-releases, all the EPs, split-EPs, split-10"LP on once CD, remastered and available for everyone. As thee original vinyls were very limited and sold out since years, we deceided to make this CD. As bonus you´ll find the ultra-rare split-MC with Hierba and an exclusive live-track. Value for money! The booklet has all original covers and fotos, with new layout, linernotes and all that shit. A piece of history!

In 2010 time came for our 20-years-anniversary album on Austrian label Bloodred Horizon Records! Especially for this important release we covered a big influence of us: Grave´s “In Love”! There was also a limited digipack-version available incl. a bonus-coverversion of old Spanish Grindcore masters Denak. This release has the most Death Metal influence and surprisingly some interesting doomy parts, altogether remains the typical DEPRESSION style.

The newest output, released on 01.01.2013 is the split-7”EP with old-school Deathers ERODED from Germany on Suffer Productions! Our songs are more back to the grinding roots again, this is DEPRESSION in the purest form including a sick coverversion of mighty Death! First 100 copies of this limited vinyl version come on bloodred vinyl. As long as the flame of the underground-spirit and the life-philosophy of true metal-music burns in my heart and soul we will always carry on like this! DEPRESSION are dedicated to the world-wide metal underground. Keep the spirit alive, and the underground will never die!!

O.K., thanks for your interest and support and stay fast, heavy and brutal!!!

So long,

Kai & DEPRESSION

We don't care if you think that DEPRESSION isn't very original or new, because we play the music we want to play!! Nothing else!!!

LINE-UP for OEF 2013:

Kai - drums, backing screams

Marc - bass, backing growls

Ron - guttural grunts, shrieks

Stefan - guitar