Despondency - Biography
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2001-
Biography
Located in the north of Germany, Leer/East Frisia based brutal death band Despondency was founded in the spring of 1999 by Dirk Janssen (drums) and Steffen Ilm (guitar). Approximately two months later vocalist Konstantin Luehring, Heiko Lewin (guitar) and Patrick Schwarz (bass) completed the young band. After some little quarrels in the line-up Heiko is nowadays playing bass, and Mike who joined the band in early 2002 is responsible for the second guitar.
The music of Despondency can be described as strongly influenced by the brutal US Death Metal style whilst the band tries to mix the inspirations of single bands in order to create an own unique sound - the Despondency style! Nevertheless, as we take it, comparisons with other bands of this genre cannot be avoided. Despondency only plays the music they like and would listen to personally - brutal, fast, right-in-your-face Death Metal! Lyricwise, the band deals with the hopeless existence of the vermin called humans on planet earth. Thus the lyrical themes cover anything from aggressive, hate filled descriptions of absurd modern reality to spotlights on hidden instincts of the human mind resulting in unimaginable brutality and even to a few surrealistic hints at the hypocrisy and falsehood of religious syndicates, all summarized to a reflection on the total worthlessness of humanity.
Despondency's debut MCD "Extinction" (500 copies/sold out), including six songs / 20 minutes of fast brutal Death Metal, was recorded, mixed and mastered by Joerg Uken at the Soundlodge studio (e.g. Obscenity's "Intense" album) within a week in February 2001 and was professionally pressed and published as a self-financed recording by the band itself. The MCD was promoted and traded worldwide and this led to an overall positive and rather enthusiastic feedback and cooperation with fans and bands from all over the globe. The Promo CDr "Womb of Shit", recorded again at the Soundlodge studio, included three brand new tracks and was released in December 2002. This new offering was mainly for promotional use and should increase the good reputation Despondency had already gained in the scene as well as to interest a label to sign the band. After receiving many offers from interested labels, finally Revenge Productions from Germany won the race as they were convinced of the band's quality immediately, and so Despondency signed to them in March 2003. In October 2003 the first full length CD called "God on Acid" was released on Revenge Productions. Recorded once again in the Soundlodge studio, it consists of nine ultra fast and brutal US style Death Metal tracks, clad in the most professional and heavy sound Despondency ever had. This output marked a big step forward for the band and was going to be one of the most relentless Death Metal albums coming from Europe so far! "God on Acid" was once more highly acclaimed by the press and, more important, the fans of brutal music, and proved again the outstanding character of the band.
Concerning live gigs, Despondency has played a good amount of shows in the years of the group's existence. For example, the band was a part of the Ear Terror Festival 2001, the Ludwigshafen Deathfest 2002 & 2003, the Fuck the Commerce VI 2003, the first NRW Deathfest 2003, the second Gothenburg Deathfest 2003, the Obscene Extreme 2004 and the Mountains of Death 2004 together with many smaller gigs, and furthermore supported, together with Godless Truth, Texas/US based Prophecy's European tour in 2004. The bands shared stage with include famous and well known names like Disavowed, Pyaemia, Wormed, Hate Plow, Cephalic Carnage, Suffocation and Internal Suffering among others. In October 2004 Despondency toured again 10 days throughout Europe, this time with Czech slammers Godless Truth and the Greek band Inveracity. Another tour took part in September 2005 with New York's Malignancy and Wormed from Spain, this time for about 14 days with 11 gigs including countries like Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and of course Germany and a few other European grounds. Despondency's last gig for 2005 was at the Drachten Deathfest, which was the last gig for Steffen as well due he left the band afterwords for his study. After that Dirk joined the well known dutch killers of Disavowed as a session drummer to help out for their still handicaped drummer Robbe V. He did that 'til May 2006 and during this time he played several gigs in the Netherlands as well as a little Asian Tour. Konni also took some kind of time out with his 2nd band Resection. They recorded an full length which will be released soon on Unmatched Brutality Rec.!
From May this year the focus went back on Despondency, due we wanted to find some new members to fill in for Heiko and for Steffen to continue. We succeded 2 month ago in finding Patrick Viol (Bass) from a local band called Wretched Spawn. Shortly after that we found Jelle Hamstra (guitar) who's from the Netherlands (Friesland) and plays also in Morblast. With this line up we went to the studio in late August and recorded the MCD "Supreme Misanthropic Brutality", which was also released in by Revenge Productions 2007. Again the responses where more than positive, due this release was only meant as an appetizer for a new full lenght CD. Shortly after the release Jelle left the band, and Despondency was again a four piece and is still.
2008 things changed a lot in the Despo Camp, while we left from Revenge Productions and searched for a new label to release the new stuff and give us bigger support. While writing new songs for the upcoming Album, we signed to Brutal Bands, which has famous names like Devourment, Emeth or Insidious Decrepency on its roster. Then in April/May 2008 we entered the Soundlodge Studio again and recorded our 2nd full lenght missile named "Revelation IV - Rise of the Nemesis", which will be finally released by February 27th 2009. With the new CD in our baggage and almost 10 years old, Despondency will play a lot of shows in Europe and hopefully for the first time in North America. Feel free to contact us for booking............Slam!
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Source: http://www.myspace.com/godonacid
The music of Despondency can be described as strongly influenced by the brutal US Death Metal style whilst the band tries to mix the inspirations of single bands in order to create an own unique sound - the Despondency style! Nevertheless, as we take it, comparisons with other bands of this genre cannot be avoided. Despondency only plays the music they like and would listen to personally - brutal, fast, right-in-your-face Death Metal! Lyricwise, the band deals with the hopeless existence of the vermin called humans on planet earth. Thus the lyrical themes cover anything from aggressive, hate filled descriptions of absurd modern reality to spotlights on hidden instincts of the human mind resulting in unimaginable brutality and even to a few surrealistic hints at the hypocrisy and falsehood of religious syndicates, all summarized to a reflection on the total worthlessness of humanity.
Despondency's debut MCD "Extinction" (500 copies/sold out), including six songs / 20 minutes of fast brutal Death Metal, was recorded, mixed and mastered by Joerg Uken at the Soundlodge studio (e.g. Obscenity's "Intense" album) within a week in February 2001 and was professionally pressed and published as a self-financed recording by the band itself. The MCD was promoted and traded worldwide and this led to an overall positive and rather enthusiastic feedback and cooperation with fans and bands from all over the globe. The Promo CDr "Womb of Shit", recorded again at the Soundlodge studio, included three brand new tracks and was released in December 2002. This new offering was mainly for promotional use and should increase the good reputation Despondency had already gained in the scene as well as to interest a label to sign the band. After receiving many offers from interested labels, finally Revenge Productions from Germany won the race as they were convinced of the band's quality immediately, and so Despondency signed to them in March 2003. In October 2003 the first full length CD called "God on Acid" was released on Revenge Productions. Recorded once again in the Soundlodge studio, it consists of nine ultra fast and brutal US style Death Metal tracks, clad in the most professional and heavy sound Despondency ever had. This output marked a big step forward for the band and was going to be one of the most relentless Death Metal albums coming from Europe so far! "God on Acid" was once more highly acclaimed by the press and, more important, the fans of brutal music, and proved again the outstanding character of the band.
Concerning live gigs, Despondency has played a good amount of shows in the years of the group's existence. For example, the band was a part of the Ear Terror Festival 2001, the Ludwigshafen Deathfest 2002 & 2003, the Fuck the Commerce VI 2003, the first NRW Deathfest 2003, the second Gothenburg Deathfest 2003, the Obscene Extreme 2004 and the Mountains of Death 2004 together with many smaller gigs, and furthermore supported, together with Godless Truth, Texas/US based Prophecy's European tour in 2004. The bands shared stage with include famous and well known names like Disavowed, Pyaemia, Wormed, Hate Plow, Cephalic Carnage, Suffocation and Internal Suffering among others. In October 2004 Despondency toured again 10 days throughout Europe, this time with Czech slammers Godless Truth and the Greek band Inveracity. Another tour took part in September 2005 with New York's Malignancy and Wormed from Spain, this time for about 14 days with 11 gigs including countries like Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and of course Germany and a few other European grounds. Despondency's last gig for 2005 was at the Drachten Deathfest, which was the last gig for Steffen as well due he left the band afterwords for his study. After that Dirk joined the well known dutch killers of Disavowed as a session drummer to help out for their still handicaped drummer Robbe V. He did that 'til May 2006 and during this time he played several gigs in the Netherlands as well as a little Asian Tour. Konni also took some kind of time out with his 2nd band Resection. They recorded an full length which will be released soon on Unmatched Brutality Rec.!
From May this year the focus went back on Despondency, due we wanted to find some new members to fill in for Heiko and for Steffen to continue. We succeded 2 month ago in finding Patrick Viol (Bass) from a local band called Wretched Spawn. Shortly after that we found Jelle Hamstra (guitar) who's from the Netherlands (Friesland) and plays also in Morblast. With this line up we went to the studio in late August and recorded the MCD "Supreme Misanthropic Brutality", which was also released in by Revenge Productions 2007. Again the responses where more than positive, due this release was only meant as an appetizer for a new full lenght CD. Shortly after the release Jelle left the band, and Despondency was again a four piece and is still.
2008 things changed a lot in the Despo Camp, while we left from Revenge Productions and searched for a new label to release the new stuff and give us bigger support. While writing new songs for the upcoming Album, we signed to Brutal Bands, which has famous names like Devourment, Emeth or Insidious Decrepency on its roster. Then in April/May 2008 we entered the Soundlodge Studio again and recorded our 2nd full lenght missile named "Revelation IV - Rise of the Nemesis", which will be finally released by February 27th 2009. With the new CD in our baggage and almost 10 years old, Despondency will play a lot of shows in Europe and hopefully for the first time in North America. Feel free to contact us for booking............Slam!
---
Source: http://www.myspace.com/godonacid