Defeated Sanity Return to Sheer Brutality on Chronicles of Lunacy
Watch the foul video for lead single “The Odour of Sanctity”
“One of the most extreme things I’ve ever heard” – Decibel
“When Defeated Sanity release a new album, it’s always cause for attention” – Metal Injection
Defeated Sanity have pushed the boundaries of extreme metal for 30 odd years. The band execute jazz-infused chaos with mind-bending precision, while also slamming together so many memorable breakdowns that they cracked the Billboard charts. Their upcoming seventh album still hits from every odd angle, but on Chronicles of Lunacy, these technical maniacs return to sheer brutality.
“The last few DS albums leaned heavily on the proggier side of our sound”, says the band’s drummer and founding member Lille Gruber. “We still like to experiment, but on our new album, we wanted to get back to the raw slamming that our fans love about Psalms of the Moribund or Chapters of Repugnance”.
Chronicles of Lunacy comes out November 22 on Season of Mist.
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Just like the rivers of hell, “The Odour of Sanctity” comes pouring out the speakers in a never-ending stream of filth. Guttural vocals spew through a churning mix of chunky riffs, hiccuping drum fills and a cavernous low-end. “We wanted to keep some of the fidelity that’s associated with modern death metal”, the band says, “but Chronicles has more of the raw production style that stood out on Psalms and Chapters“.
To dig back into the brutal mindset that long-time fans have come to crave, in January 2024, Defeated Sanity returned to Thousand Cave Studios. The underground New York City hotspot was also the excavation site for The Sanguinary Impetus, which dumped a fresh layer of dirt on the more “polished” production of Passages Into Deformity. Except this time around, the band encouraged producer Colin Marston to really get his hands dirty.
“The Odour of Sanctity” stinks to high heaven. New guitarist Vaughn Stoffey shreds with such gross speed that even the old school heads will be spinning around like The Exorcist. Of course, the ungodly pace is still set by the whip of Lille Gruber. He opens the song as if puncturing a wound, hammering out blast beats that are as merciless as the nails of the cross.
“Lille’s drumming is just ridiculous”, says Jacob Schmidt, whose belching bass lines give “Odour” a oddball bounce. “He’s the face of the DS franchise. So even though Chronicles is more slamming and straightforward, the weird, hyper-technical experiments still found a way into the mix”.
Plenty of knuckle-dragging awaits within its stomach-turning twists, but Chronicles of Lunacy isn’t Defeated Sanity for dummies. Heck, the album’s concept is wrapped up in the many malicious ways that delusional thinking can rot the human psyche. “Each song deals with a different strain of mental corruption”, says Josh Welshman. “Odour” stinks of religious fanaticism. After a brutal showing on Sanguinary, Welshman returns with a vengeance. “A miracle defiled / Fraudulently wrought“, he summons with a demonic growl as the band open up the pit with a brutal breakdown.
“In true DS fashion, ‘Odour’ showcases the full range of our sound”, the band says. “It’s freaky but also unrelentingly brutal, which represents the crossroad that we ended up at on Chronicles of Lunacy. Even though the album can get pretty fucking weird, there’s still a emphasis on straight-up slamming”.
The video for “The Odour of Sanctity” was created by Obscenery Films.
More praise for Defeated Sanity
“Defeated Sanity have captured the throne of brutal death metal…” – Angry Metal Guy
“A jazz ensemble hiding in plain sight as a brutal tech-death band” – No Clean Singing
“While the rest of us smooth-brained mortals are content with playing checkers or Connect Four, these guys are playing six simultaneous games of 3D chess with their swollen, pulsating minds” – Metal Sucks
“Should be up for some sort of award for being one of this offshoot’s most steadily morphing bands” – Last Rites
“Defeated Sanity’s brutality comes almost entirely from their demandingly intricate songwriting” – Toilet Over Hell
“Defeated Sanity has crafted a sound that is wholly their own” – Heaviest of Art
Tracklist
1. Amputationsdrang (2:30)
2. The Odour Of Sanctity (3:36) [WATCH]
3. Accelerating The Rot (3:22)
4. Temporal Disintegration (5:52)
5. Extrinsically Enraged (4:09)
6. A Patriarchy Perverse (4:16)
7. Condemned to Vascular Famine (6:00)
8. Heredity Violated (3:48)
Total runtime: 33:35
Country: Germany / United States
Style: Brutal Technical Death Metal
FFO: Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Suffocation, Devourment
DEFEATED SANITY is unequivocally one of the most unique, boundary-pushing and crucial bands in the history of extreme death metal. Their music is as technically coherent as it is mind-bending and memorable. Endlessly replay-able and full of discovery, their maze of riffs and musical passages is inspired by infamous classic bands in the extreme metal genre, while also heavily steeped in jazz and progressive classical elements.
The band consists of four members. They’re led by drummer Lille Gruber, who’s the son of deceased co-founding member Wolfgang Teske. Gruber is joined by bandmates Jacob Schmidt (bass), Josh Welshman (vocals) and Vaughn Stoffey (guitar).
As well as being the drummer of Defeated Sanity, Gruber is the multi- instrumental, songwriting mastermind behind the band’s deep and compelling catalogue of songs and compositions. He possesses a bag of tricks seen nowhere else in the genre, and a musical prowess which is on full display throughout their new album Chronicles of Lunacy.
“We love experimenting”, explains drummer and founding member Lille Gruber. “But we realized that some of our oldest fans might have gotten lost after our last couple of albums. With the new one, we wanted to focus more on neck-snapping brutality”.
Chronicles of Lunacy punches you right in the face. Press play and “Amputationsdrang” already has you pinned to the mat beneath its non-stop blasts. Get comfortable, too, because Defeated Sanity don’t let the album up for air until the very end of Track 4. But turns out, acting like knuckle-dragging cavemen isn’t so easy for a band that has a Mensa-level maestro like Gruber at the controls.
At the tender age of six, Lille Gruber picked up heavy guitar and drums. Inspired by killer American BDM bands like Disgorge, Monstrosity and Brodequin, the German wunderkind recorded the band’s first demo alongside his father, Wolfgang Teske. Since Wolfgang’s passing in 2008, Gruber has composed every foul note of Defeated Sanity. Whether he’s hammering his snare, pinging between cymbals or riding a colossal groove, The Chronicles of Lunacy flows like a never-ending stream of filth.
“Lille’s drumming is just ridiculous”, Jacob Schmidt says. Schmidt – who toured with Obscura behind Cosmogenesis – joined as the other half of Defeated Sanity’s chaotic rhythm section for the band’s beloved second album. His nimble, belching bass give the new album’s lead single “The Odour of Sanctity” a dizzying bounce. “He’s the face of the franchise, so we’re never going to abandon those head-scratching moments that set Defeated Sanity apart”.
Indeed, Chronicles of Lunacy isn’t Defeated Sanity for dummies. Heck, the lyrics are wrapped up in the twisted ways that delusions can rot the human psyche. This heady concept was made flesh by none other than Jon Zig. Drawn in painstaking detail by his wicked right hand, the album’s cover shows that the birth of some ideas look an awful lot like a gory and sex-crazed nativity scene.
“Each song on Chronicles deals with a different form of mental corruption”, Josh Welshman says”. “Odor” stinks of religious fanaticism. “A Patriarchy Perverse” cracks open the mind of co-ed killer Ed Kemper, while “Extrinsically Enraged” practically foams at the mouth with squealing hammer-ons. “That one’s more literal”, says Welshman with a hearty laugh. “It’s about contracting rabies”. If it weren’t for Disposal of the Dead / Dharmata, then Defeated Sanity would’ve chewed through as many vocalists as they have albums, but after a brutal showing on their last one, Welshman is back with more guttural vengeance. His growls ooze from the pit of his gut on “Temporal Disintegration”, stomped out like the innards of a cockroach by the gravity-defying slams.
While it still hits from every odd angle, Chronicles of Lunacy does draw a jagged red line back to Defeated Sanity’s brutal origins. After all, the band now share a label with their namesake. In true, DS fashion, the first song written for this album was “Heredity Violated”, a headbanging grand finale that never stops chugging. “This album isn’t as tough on the brain as the last two”, says new guitarist Vaughn Stoffey, whose chunky riffs whip “Accelerating the Rot” into the fastest song in the band’s canon. “It’s rawer and more straightforward, which gets back to what fans love about Psalms of the Moribund“.
To dig up the sheer brutality that long-time fans have come to crave, Defeated Sanity returned to Thousand Cave Studios. New York City’s most vile underground hotspot also served as the excavation site for the Billboard-charting The Sanguinary Impetus, which shoveled a fresh layer of dirt over the “polished” production of Passages into Deformity. But the band encouraged producer Colin Marston to get down and dirty with Chronicles of Lunacy. “We still wanted some of the high fidelity that you hear on modern death metal records”, Schmidt says, “but this album has the same crushing low-end as Psalms or Chapters of Repugnance“.
The band execute this two-headed approach to monstrous effect on “Condemned to Vascular Famine”. At just under six minutes, the song delivers the longest ass beating on Chronicles of Lunacy. At times, all four members sound like they’re climbing up the walls in separate asylums, but after slipping in a brief nod to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the band come slamming down into the album’s ugliest breakdown.
“That’s one of our favorites”, the band says. “It lands at a crossroad of the DS sound that we ended up with on Chronicles of Lunacy. Even though it gets pretty fucking weird at times, there’s still an emphasis on heavy, straight-up slamming”
None of their albums are ever going to follow a straight line, but on Chronicles of Lunacy, Defeated Sanity return to sheer brutality.
Lineup
Josh Welshman – Vocals
Vaughn Stoffey – Guitars
Jacob Schmidt – Bass
Lille Gruber – Drums
Guest musicians
Danny Nelson and Paolo Paguntalan provide backup vocals on “Amputationsdrang” and “Accelerating the Rot”
Recording Studio
Thousand Caves Studio in January 2024.
Production
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Colin Marston.
Produced by Colin Marston and Defeated Sanity.
Cover Art
Artwork by Jon Zig
Title lettering by Liz Schmidt
Layout by Alex Eckman-Lawn
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