DISMAL

History: DISMAL was formed in Lüdenscheid (Sauerland/Germany) by Andy (guitar) and Marc (bass) back in summer of 1993. They wanted to play raw and old-school Death Metal without technical experiments. After a short time two members completed the band: Markus (drums) and Mario (vocals) joined DISMAL. The first tape, simply called "Dismal", was released in January 1994 and only recorded for some friends. It featured only two songs + in-/outro. After this tape drummer Markus left the band. Kai Sattelkau, a friend of the band, who also played in GODS OF GRIND and DEPRESSION (with Marc), entered the DISMAL-horde to play more brutal music. The first "official" demo called "Untergangsstimmung" was published in April 1994 and contained 6 songs of raw Death Metal. The sound wasn´t good because it was only recorded on 4 tracks in the own practice-room in the catacombs of Marc´s parents house. Two songs of this demo were the recordings from the first tape. Nevertheless 200 pieces of this debut-demo were spread in the underground and DISMAL earned some really good reviews. The band played in August ´94 the first and only live-concert with Crematory (Ger), T.O.C.H. and Frozen Illusion in Hemer (Ger). This was a great event for all fans and especially the band-members! A few months later Mario left DISMAL and Ron (a schoolmate of Marc) was the new freak behind the microphone. In Autumn 1995 DISMAL released their last official demo "Tales & Prophecies". It was recorded again in the own practice-room, but with a better sound. The tape contained 10 songs (+in-/outro) of aggressive Death Metal with Ron´s varied vocal style. 400 copies were sold and there were lots of good responses from underground magazines. In Spring 1996 DISMAL recorded 9 new brutal live-songs on a rehearsal-tape, but unfortunately without vocals, because Ron was absent this day. Shortly after these live-recordings DISMAL got shocked, because Kai decided to left his home-town and moved to Dortmund for his new work. Finally, DISMALs last meeting in the practice-room was in September 1996: no Death Metal-drummer was found in the town of Lüdenscheid. So the band decided to split up. There was nothing to hear about DISMAL for years...In this time Ron was fully integrated in the groovy Death/Grind-act DEPRESSION and Andy started to play Pagan Midgard Art with HEL. In Autumn 2003 the good old DISMAL rehearsal-tape was found, and all members were still really satisfied with the old live-material. Ron recorded his new vocals on the old songs in the Sunset-studio of Markus (APHELION / HEL) on 22nd of November 2003. He created the old typical DISMAL-mood once again and Marc did some backing-growls. After this, Marc and Ron decided to release these raw recordings on their new underground Death Metal-label SUFFER PRODUCTIONS as a split-CD with Ron´s and Markus´ side-project APHELION in the beginning of 2004. Andy has painted the cover-picture of DISMAL´s part called "Maze of Dementia", Kai made the complete layout. But it´s only stuff for crazy underground Death Metal-maniacs!!! Let your ears bleed!!! Finally, a very big special "thanx" to all friends, fans and supporters over the years!!! You rule!!!