The German GrindCore band Depression have released some releases in the last years, without getting the recognition they deserve. They released a split CD with Agatochles a while ago. Due to reasons only familiar for those who has started up a magazine, we only caught up with them recently. We got a copy of this split CD and sent the band an interview sheet. Kai Sattelkau from this two man band replied.



1. Why did you choose the band name ?

- Well, people ask me this question a lot... I like this short but pregnant bandnames very much. A single word with an important and rememberable meaning, such as "Death", "Blood", "Autopsy", "Cancer", "Carcass", "Sodom", "Rot", "Gut" etc. I want such a word for my own band too. Not one of these million changeable blabla names, if you know what I mean !? But this single word should not reduce my band to a stupid gore bands or something like that. I want to have a bandname which fits to different musicstyles. So my choice felt to DEPRESSION and I am still very satisfied with this!! Of course nowdays there are a few other DEPRESSION’s around but who cares !?! As I started with DEPRESSION in 1989 I did not know any other band with the same name...

2. Why GrindCore/Death Metal ?

- Why not!?! Ha, ha..well, my heart beats for Metal music, and since I can remember I always liked the fast and simple songs a lot more than the doomy and technical ones. So Death Metal and Grindcore are my favorite musicstyles for 11 years. With DEPRESSION I try to bombine both styles: The heavyness and brutality of Death metal and the speed and songstructure of Grindcore.

3. Except from the split CD; I am not familiar with your releases. Please give us a biography with all your releases, labels and compilation CDs (with labels) you have contributed to ?

- Here we go: My first Demo-tape was "Tal Der Tranen" (1990, self-released) with pure Noise-Grind and a very bad sound, but the songs are still killers ! The second Demo is called "Vergessene Welten" (1992, self- released). Simple Death Metal with Grindcore influences. It contains the first slow song from DEPRESSION. In 1993 the third Demo "..in Verzweiflung" saw the light of day (self-released), the first time with Marc on growls. I would describe it as fast Death Metal. After a break we decided to release in 1995 the first three demos re- recorded on our fourth demo "Erinnerungen" (self- released). It is nearly an hour of the early period of DEPRESSION. Very cool tape... In 1996 there was our debut ‘7/EP "Ein Hauch von Moder" (Gulli Records Germany). The groovy Death/Grind in the DEPRESSION vein was born. A year later we split a CD with Agathocles (1997, self- released). I am still totally satisfied with this release !! Then came the split- EP with Maggot Shoes (1997, self-released) and shortly after this the split- Tape with Hierba (1998, Hierba Records). This tape contains early and low- fi rehearsal and live-recordings ! Pure underground and very voisy, but 100 % DEPRESSION. We release the second part of "Ein Hauch von Moder" on a split-‘7/EP with Rejectamenta (1998, self- released). There are a lot of tape- samplers with DEPRESSION songs on it and the following CD- samplers: DWE (Nacht & Nebel Rec.), Adamos (Nacht & Nebel Rec.), Aberration (Magiamedia) and Sometimes Death is better Vol. 5 (Shiver Rec.). And that’s it until now. Hopefully we will release a new split-‘7/EP with Intestal Infection and a split-‘10/LP with Rot this year ! The plans for the next year is our first full- length CD and a Picture EP to celebrate our ten years anniversary.

4. Is there any plans of releasing a compilation album of your ‘7/EPs/ or a live album ?

- I have discussed this with Marc a while ago and the solution is that we do not want to release such a compilation. We think that this is a little rip-off to the freaks who bought all the vinyl. Of course there are some people around without a record-player, but that isn’t our problem. We love vinyl and so there will be always vinyl releases from DEPRESSION.

5. Please give us the full story behind the split CD.

- It wasn’t very hard to come to this split thing. Well, it was very easy instead ! I’ve sent Jan from Agathocles our first EP and asked him if we could cover a song from them. He answered that he likes DEPRESSION very, very much. At the same time Curtis from Gulli Records wanted to do a split- EP with Agathocles and asked me if DEPRESSION wanted to be the second band. Of course we wanted ! I told Jan this and he loved this idea too. But after a while Curtis wasn’t interested in this EP anymore. But Jan and I wanted to release this split thing. Well, as you know I released it by myself and it is a split- CD. That’s it.

6. Have you got any offers of being signed by any labels like for example Morbid Records or one of the big underground labels ? If yes; why did you turn down the offer(s) ?

- No, there has never been an offer from a big underground label. Of course it would be great for DEPRESSION to be signed to Morbid Records or a label like this, because they are cool and big but still underground. I won’t sign to Nuclear Blast, Century Media or something like this, because these labels didn’t fit to DEPRESSION. They are far to big and commercial and you can’t be creative without any compromises. That’s bad. There are some offers from small underground labels, but I think they can’t help DEPRESSION in the right way, because they have very low budgets and often I could guarantee a high quality release from us more if I release it by myself ! But of course all labels are welcome to work with !!!

7. As the thanx and shitlist in the split CD suggest; you have both positive and negative experiences from the metal scene. What is your view on the underground metal scene ?

- All in all I would say it is positive. There are always stupid rip- offs, but most of the guys out there are real freaks who stay true to their music. If the underground will be infected too much by assholes, I don’t want to be a part of it any longer. DEPRESSION is underground and that makes me proud.

8. What is your political, religious and philosophical views ?

- I don’t like any political direction. That’s all bullshit and they are all the same fucking corrupt pigs. But the worst scum of the universe are the nazi- assholes ! I don’t like any kind of religion too. To me, religion is for the weak minds on earth who need a leader to follow. Not my cup of tea... My philosophical views are very complicated and I suppose there is not enough space in the magazine to explain them in detail, but I can shorten them to the topic that you should be your won master and that you have to believe in yourself. Try to live your dreams and use your intelligence !!

9. Is any members of Depression involved in other projects/bands ?

- Yes, I am also playing drums in a punkrock band called Woodlaus and in an ’80 influenced industrial-pop project called Morphine Trip. There were/are some other noise and grind-fun projects, but who cares ?!

10. What is yours/Depression’s future plans ?

- The next thing should be the split ‘7/EP with Intestinal Infection and later this year the split - ‘10/LP with Rot. Hopefully all that will happen ! Next year we want to release a Picture - EP and our first full length CD. But nothing is sure yet.
Depressive greetings to all readers of this magazine. Stay fast, heavy and brutal and keep the underground spirit alive !!

We wish you good luck in the future.