Despond

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reated in 1995, Despond started from the ashes of the death metal band Perished, a band that was only two years old.

Exploring the doom/death metal genres they released their first demo tape As My Soul Reaches Infinity in 1996 under the membership of Richard Loudin (vocals/keyboards), Luisa Trierscheidt (bass), Yann Tomaïer (guitars) and J.B. Corgniard (drums). In the end of the same year, Despond recorded a concert in Paris, a concert headlined by Impaled Nazarene, and the live tape album Beheaded And Sanctified was released in spring 1997 featruing the membership of Richard Loudin (vocals), Luisa Trierscheidt (bass), Yann Tomaïer (guitar), Didier Maurice (guitar), Nicolas Favard (keyboards) and J.B. Corgniard (drums).

Until the end of 1998, the band toured in France and composed enough material to enter the studio to record its debut album, but several band members decided to leave for artistic reasons only a few weeks before entering the studio. So between 1998 and 2002, Despond remained the individual project of vocalist and founding member Richard Loudin. The only recording during this time was the unpublished Wide Open Arms (2000) "best of..." compilation showing the collective work of Loudin, along with Yann Tomaïer (guitar), Didier Maurice (guitar), Yannick Karsenty (bass), Stéphane Maurice (drums) and Nicolas Favard (keyboards). During this period also, Loudin wrote and composed brand new songs, in a darker and more extreme doom metal style. Entitled Supreme Funeral Oration, the resulting album was recorded between October 2001 and July 2003 with Loudin for most of the instruments along with Jonathan Thery (bass).