Interview with From The Depths

How did the original From the Depths line-up come together?

Matt Sorg:BLOOD OF CHRIST fell apart. I was bandless for a little while but I got the itch to start something up and I started writing some new stuff and got a band together with Rob Newlin on drums who was also in the last lineup of BOC and my friend Damon Conn on guitar. We didn’t have any idea who we could get to sing or play bass so we talked to Jim Konya. He came to one of our rehearsals and was impressed with the material and decided to give the vocals a try even though he’d never really been a frontman before. Right away he was full of enthusiasm and came up with tons of lyrics and started singing for the band. He also created his alter ego, Malcolm Judas Anthony around this time and he came up with a great name for the band… FROM THE DEPTHS. We still didn’t have a bassist at that point so we played our first show without one. We recorded the first demo and I played bass on it.

Malcolm J Anthony was quite a character. Anyone that knows his true identity I’m sure would agree as well. Explain Malcom J. Anthony’s role and the then details of his departure.

Matt: I’ve already revealed his identity in this interview and I’m pretty sure most metalheads that know of the band knew that info anyway. Jim’s drive was great and he really helped us get the ball rolling. We made two demos with him and played some great shows but in the end, Jim and I just butted heads too much. We would scream and fight about the littlest things and it got to be too much of a struggle. You do this for fun really and if you’re screaming and fighting at every practice, it’s no fun so we decided to let him go. Without his input, we wouldn’t have had the name and we wouldn’t have made those first two demos that Duane compiled on the first CD either. So all fighting aside… he was very good for the band.

What was the initial vision of the band?

Matt: We just wanted to make great extreme metal. Jim came in with a more direct vision. He wanted to tell stories like King Diamond but instead of making a concept album, he wanted each song to tell it’s own horror story. He also wanted the shows to have the theatrics of a King Diamond show.

How did that vision change when the Decrepit and From the Depths became one entity?

Matt: When DECREPIT played it’s last show, we talked to Rob Molzan about joining FTD. As you know, Rob did end up joining the band and he brought his own style in with him. He refused to sing Jim’s lyrics because they didn’t suit him really and so he wrote entirely new words for a couple of the old songs but for the most part we dropped all of that material and decided to move forward with new stuff. His lyrical content was more of the same dark stuff that he was known for in Decrepit.
Musically, we didn’t change much if at all at that point. We just kept doing what we’d been doing.

The artwork was always sick! Who was the artist and are you still in contact etc?

Duane Morris: The artwork for the first “album” (actually two demo sessions released together on one CD) was done by Antoinette Mazzola. She was a girl that went to school with Jim “Malcolm Anthony” Konya. If my memory serves me correct, this piece of artwork was a high school art project originally, and I believe she won some kind of award for it. The actual artwork is even “sicker” than what you see on the cover. There is alot of detail that is hard to capture in a reproduction, including some actual grains of sand in the painting for example. I would imagine that Konya is still in contact with her, but I myself never had the pleasure of meeting her. Antoinette is also the sister of Sam Mazzola, who is one of Konya’s best friends and they played together in Minch, Spawn Of Satan, and so on… The artwork for “Bereavement” and “Elysium” were both done by Joe Maloney, a local guy from Cleveland’s west side. He was introduced to me initially by Jim Konya, sometime around 1997. We needed artwork fast for the “Bereavement” EP, and he invited us over to check out some available pieces of art. The piece we chose was orignally intended for INTEGRITY, but for one reason or another they never used it so he had no problem selling the rights to us. The “Elysium” cover on the other hand was painted specifically for us. I haven’t been in contact with Joe since around 2000. I know he went on to do artwork for DESCEND and SOULLESS and a number of tribute albums for Dwell Records. From The Depths was the first death metal band he had ever worked with, but it definitely opened the door for him to the death metal realm.

What were the details of the merger (Decrepit/From the Depths)? Was there any debate on what name to keep? Any discussions of using a brand new band name?

Matt: We didn’t really look at it as a merger so much. Duane was already playing bass in the band at that point for a while and with DECREPIT falling apart at that time it just seemed like the natural next step to get Molzan in the band.

There were rumors of Candlelight having interest in the band. Were there any negotiations with Candlelight or any other labels for that matter?

Matt: One day after Duane had sent out the Bereavement demo tapes to every label out there, we got a call from Lee from Candlelight. He told us it was the best American demo he’d ever heard and he said that he would be sending a contract. Rob Newlin was the one that answered that call and he didn’t understand a lot of what was said due to Lee’s thick british accent and so when he hung up the phone he wasn’t even sure what label he had spoken with. He just knew it was Lee from London. We eventually received a contract in the mail from Candlelight.

For whatever reason, that was as far as that ever got. Some members thought they wanted to dispute some things in the contract and that turned into us never hearing back from them again.

What event marked the end of From the Depths?

Matt: Rob Molzan lost interest at some point as did our keyboardist Brian Boston. They both helped us out by performing on the Elysium CD before leaving for good. Duane took over the vocals and we played some shows with fill in keyboard players and some without keyboards. We tried to carry on like that for a while but at some point Rob Newlin quit the band and I decided it was done. Duane and I both wanted to carry on but there just wasn’t a band at that point.
What are you doing now?

Matt: I’ve been playing guitar for RINGWORM since 2001. We have a new record coming out on Relapse on March 18th called “Hammer of the Witch” and we have some pretty extensive international tours booked for the next few months in support of that. I also play guitar in the Cleveland death/thrash band SOULLESS and we have a record in the works and I started a band with Kyle Severn called SHED THE SKIN which is named after a BLOOD OF CHRIST song. That band is in the vein of BOC and it was started after a Tom Rojack memorial show that Duane booked in Parma as a tribute to our friend and band mate Tom who died in 1997. We recorded two songs that will come out probably as a 7” EP some time later this year.

https://www.facebook.com/Ringworm13
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Soulless/69262121415

Duane: I am currently the guitarist/vocalist for an old-school death metal band called Kurnugia. Our music has been compared to Grave, Immolation, Incantation and Decrepit most commonly. We have a 7″ EP coming out on Psycho Slaughter Records entitled “Tribulations Of The Abyss”, which should be released by spring. We have also distributed a few thousand promotional CDs throughout the last year. Soon we will be recording a few more songs for some additonal split EPs, and eventually an album once we have enough material. Members of the band have also been involved with Decrepit, NunSlaughter, December Wolves, and Delusion…so this should give you some idea of what to expect. Anyone interested can check us out on facebook or reverbnation at the links provided below:

https://www.facebook.com/Kurnugia