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Diabolical Conquest Webzine (Kunal N. Choksi): Hello Depression! What have you been up to lately? Marc: Hell-o Kunal! I´m busy with work and my label Suffer Productions, check www.suffer-prod.de.vu. Besides I'm making some preparations for a sick trip to a famous brutal Death Metal festival called “Mountains of Death” in Switzerland ! Will be a fantastic and drunken time as always!
DC: Ah yes, that label kicks ass [Beloved ignorant readers, read our reviews of Sore and Depression/Paganizer split.] We have been promoting the 'Mountains of Death' festival too - all the best with that! Depression have been around since 1989 and have had countless releases over the years. Yet I feel the band hasn't received the appreciation or fame they truly deserve, at least not out of Germany. Do you believe this is true? What do you think is the reason behind it? Ron: Hi Kunal! I have to answer this with another question. What does “fame” mean exactly?? [Getting pussy? - Kunal] I think to us it is not to get that famous, but to be a solid rock on the shore of extreme Metal! We play the music we like and if someone likes it too, perfect! If not, it's ok, too, because you can't be everybody's darling. Nevertheless we get our appreciation from fans from all countries, which let us know that they love our music and that we should keep up this work. That's the reward to get! Maybe we could have been more “famous” if we played live more often – all in all we played only 9 official shows between 2004 and 2006! Most of the more extreme bands became more known with touring the whole world. Last but not least, another reason surely is that we don't give a shit about trends or hypes and still play that old-school Death/Grind. We are still underground but well known to some dedicated freaks all over the world.
Ron: Personally I really like the name Depression, because I am fascinated by all those sad emotions like sorrow, agony, grief and depression. Those feelings can get the strongest ones onto their knees. That's the real deal, haha! Hm, na, when Kai started Depression, he wanted a strong name, one word that sticks to the minds, but also one that doesn't deal with a typical topic like gore or death. So he decided to use Depression. That's it! I don't think anyone of us has ever regretted this choice and of course we are proud to be part of this sick family! Surely this name is also a burden, a cross that we bear, haha…some years ago a person named “Mel” wrote on our homepage that he/she is really pissed off because he/she was on the search for psychological help with his/her depressions and finally jumped on our site. Why, for heaven's sake, could we be this irresponsible?! By the way…Mel, if you ever read this interview and are still searching for help, please send me a mail, I'll do my very best, I promise, haha!
DC: Hahaha, that's wackier than I expected! Your artworks too have been most interesting. Certainly not of the clichéd death/grind type one usually gets to see, I think they are spectacular and unique. Is there a message you are trying to convey through your artworks? Do they have any significance at all – what about that tree-like man who often makes an appearance in your releases? Could you describe the concept or idea of some of your favourite Depression artworks? Ron: Let me first tell you about the tree-like man, who is called “Wurzelhuber”. It is a German word which means root-man in a folk-like term. Maiden have Eddie, Megadeth have Vic Rattlehead…we have the Wurzelhuber! It is our mascot. I think you can find him on any of our releases. In the past all the layouts were done by Kai, but since 1-2 years I am responsible for the visual terror, and I will do the future stuff, too. I try to keep the Depression-style as good as I can, although I know that my covers, layouts, etc. may look different to the older ones. As I mentioned before, we all have to be satisfied with it before it is published, so you can say it's always 100% Depression, not more, not less! I think there is no deeper message in our visual aspects. We just like to be a little different and don't want to use that common gore-death-blood-pus-vomit-bowels-shit-eating-stuff. Think of your own surprise when you first listened to our music. As you said, you didn't expect something like death/grind when you had your first look on our cover. That's pretty cool, isn't it! Cover and layout should be eye-catchers and have a cool vibe and atmosphere. Whenever I start working on new stuff I definitively don't know how it will look later. I try a couple of pictures and mix it with other ideas and see what happens. In my lyrics I like to work with metaphors, and so it is with the layout. For example “Unglaube”, which means “unbelief”…the used picture of the deer in the northern wilderness expresses some kind of untouched nature which stands for a era when people were more superstitious and obeyed the laws of nature. On the other hand it is a dark and heavy emotional picture which looks just good, haha!
Marc: Nowadays we are more into old-school Death Metal with Grindcore influences. You can check this out on our newest split-CD with Paganizer from Sweden. Our older stuff was more Grindcore with Death Metal influences. You have to hear the “Das Relikt” double-CD with the new recordings of our old demos. And we have on nearly every release a typical Crust song, mighty Disrupt was a big inspiration in early Depression until today. If you want to have percents, I would answer: 60 % Death Metal, 30 % Grindcore and 10 % Crust! But Depression is groovy Death/Grind, not more to say!
DC: I was kind of kidding there but okay, wow. Depression have had the good fortune to do split albums with some of the most respected Marc: Haha, not WE have fortune, the other bands have fortune to do those splits with us! Just kidding… But you are right, your mentioned bands are really so fukking great! Don´t forget the new split with the bulldozer Paganizer. Most of their style fits totally to our musick and we like the split-format. If you have 2 cool Death/Grind bands on one release, what the hell is better? We love all splits, but the most “famous” is the split with Haemorrhage, I think. The most killing sound is on the split with Mesrine, but every release has it´s own brutal feeling. Also the new split with Paganizer is so fukking intense and heavy! Oh Kunal, there are lots of cool remaining possible split-acts like Blood, Dead, Grave, Mortician, Pungent Stench… all big influences for Depression! But it´s more dream than reality… time will tell… but one is for sure: We always have top-quality split bands!
DC: That's true. I'd personally love to see you guys do a split with Blood! Depression have released music in all the formats in the past and even today continue with the same enthusiasm to put out music on vinyl and tape format. Don't you feel the latter format has become obsolete? What are your reasons for still putting out releases in such formats? Marc: Vinyl and tape formats are dedicated to the real underground! Only true maniacs sell and collect those cult formats! We like it so much, because we grew up with them in our fukking youth! We did tape trading with other crazy Death/Grind maniacs and I released 4 editions of my Suffer compilation tapes between the years 1993 - 1996. Vinyl and tape rule and we will never give up releasing on such dedicated formats!
Ron: Hahaha, good question! No, we don't ever fight over it! As I write most of the lyrics I am responsible for the vocal lines, mostly. While I show the others my ideas we talk about the allocation and most of the times we agree with the first impressions. Sometimes we add some vocals here or there, but only to power up the whole song. We try to use the different voices to not let the song become too monotonous and it is interesting to see how a song takes form with every new voice. Even if e.g. Marc repeats a verse I've done before, it often sounds like a new verse because he uses a different emphasis. It makes the songs special. Just listen to “On the edge” from the split-CD with Paganizer. On this song we used 4 different voices. Kai did the high pitched screams, Marc did the growls and I did also screams and the low grunts. In our opinion all voices totally fit to that song, so you see, there is no struggle about the vocal job, hehe!
DC: Fascinating. Many old bands have faded with time – their music has either mellowed down or they are now playing a different style of music. In comparison Depression's music sounds better and stronger than before. How can you explain this strange phenomenon? Ron: Thank you! I think it's mainly because Depression as a band has grown a lot. E.g. the live shows and the rehearsals gave us more of the “band-feeling” than ever before. We always discuss about every little piece of a Depression release, like the music of course, the lyrics, the layout, pictures, everything, and this process makes us focus on the essential things. We surely aren't the most technical band, but we try to write good and groovy songs. The groove is very important to us, and I think over the years we'd put even more of it to the songs. We all like it when a songs is clearly structured, and when we record some new material you can immediately feel if one song will or won't work! As we all grew older, we more and more know what we like and what we want, and I think it's all reflected in our music.
DC: Lack of originality has remained an issue with Depression. Many people say that the music on many of your releases sounds the same (which is not necessarily a Ron: To make it short: No! Depression will always sound like Depression! Everyone of us has or had other bands to try different things in music. If you find a Depression album you don't know by now, you can buy it without hesitation; it will surely be the usual Death/Grind of Depression, haha! Kai: In my opinion Depression has always some more “experimental” stuff on every release. Of course it is focused on groovy Death/Grind, but songs like “Leichenduft” with the German lyrics, “Mortal Agony” as a mid-tempo-smasher with clean vocals partly, “In the End…Unknowing” with this hypnotic-touch, “Never” with an almost cheesy melody, “Just a piece of flesh” as a doom-jewel, and of course the “Depressionen” hymns which have nothing to do with grindcore at all, are some examples that we spread our limited musical horizons from time to time. So there is always something (slightly) different beside our roots.
DC: Next year Depression will turn 20 and yet it barely has any full-length albums to its credit. What is the reason for having released such few full-length albums in your long career? Marc: As you know, we'd got some really cool opportunities to release splits with so fukking cool bands… We prefered to release these splits with more famous bands, because there was the chance, that the name Depression became more popular in our scene. And the reactions were really overwhelming! But we have released 2 full-length albums: To our 10th anniversary ("Chronische Depression") and to our 15th anniversary ("Das Relikt"). We will go in studio in this October to record our new album to our 20th anniversary! Unbelievable but true! Watch out!
Marc: Yes, this vinyl compilation is really a cool idea, because we got many requests from newer fans for our old stuff, but it´s sold out for long time, you know. So, one of our labels, “Power-It-Up Records”, offered us a cool deal and we agreed. Nearly 80 minutes of pure fukking, old-school and groovy Death/Grind! Release-date is in October 2008. As I mentioned before, the next album will be released to our 20th anniversary in 2009 and it will be called “Dekade(nz)”! The CD will include a short video, a coverversion of mighty Grave and lots of new killer smashers for sure! Release date will be hopefully in Spring 2009. We already got some cool offers from labels…
DC: Frankly, what do you think of pornogrind music and the German bands that have been instrumental in making that grind subgenre so popular these days? Marc: I think the pornogrind genre became a little bit boring, there are too many bands who want to be the most perverted and sickest act in the world and there´s no special feeling in their musick. But for example Stoma, Rompeprop or CBT are really cool and have my fukking respect. For sure I love our German pioneers Gut and Dead!
DC: When the Depression members are not writing new songs like maniacs, what do they do? Ron: It depends on my mood. Most of the time I listen to music, of course, but I also like reading, fishing, just hanging out with some friends or going to concerts. Whatever! Nothing special… Marc: Drinking beer, playing or visiting concerts, collecting musick, watching horror movies… Kai: Listen to music, ride my motorbike, spend time with my kids…
DC (Kunal N. Choksi): How nice. Thank you very much for this excellent interview. Feel free to say whatever you feel like. Cheers! Ron: Thank you for the support and the opportunity to answer your questions. We really appreciate it. I hope we have made some people curious about Depression. Look out for our current and upcoming releases. If you are into old-school Death/Grind with a lot of groove you will like it! Support the underground! Marc: Kunal, go your way further on with your cool webzine and support brutal musick! The underground needs such enthusiastic people like you! Diabolical Conquest rules supreme! Kai: Thanks a lot for this nice interview with intelligent and special questions. It was a big honour to answer them. Your webzine rules and it is dedicated to the real shit! Keep the underground spirit alive and stay fast, heavy and brutal!!!
- Interview conducted in a very profound state of Depression by Kunal N. Choksi
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bands in the scene like Rot, Agathocles, Mesrine, Haemorrhage, Gonorrhoeaction, to name a few. How easy or difficult it has been to convince them to do a split release with your band? As a whole which split release according to you is the best? Are there any bands remaining that you would love to do a split release with? 
bad thing for a fan!). From what is mentioned in one of your inlays – “We don't care if you think that Depression aren't very original or new, because we play the music we want to play, and nothing else!” – it is quite clear that you are not bothered by it and wish to stick to the old sound. But have you ever been tempted to be more creative while writing Depression songs? If tomorrow you try something new in your music, would that make you trendy? 
