Around this time last year, before the underground legends descended one last time into Menegroth, The Thousand Caves, Defeated Sanity felt like they were in need of an adjustment. Over the past 30 years, no other band has hit on more ways to spin death metal on its deformed head. But instead of concocting another heady bludgeoning of jazz-infused chaos, they wanted to double-down on the neck-snapping brutality that fans love about their earliest classics.

Judging by the reaction to Chronicles of Lunacy, it’s safe to say that Defeated Sanity delivered in skull-crushing spades. The band’s new album cracked Billboard‘s Rock, Hard Music and Independent charts. 

“There’s something to love in everything Defeated Sanity has done, but I do think they may have veered a little too far on The Sanguinary Impetus for most listeners”, Metal Injection wrote in their 9/10 review. “This is not a knock on Defeated Sanity but I think a recentering was definitely in order. And that’s exactly what they accomplish on Chronicles of Lunacy“.

“Instead of doubling down on immense, yet spectacular, complexity…they go for the jugular”, wrote PopMatters, who voted Chronicles of Lunacy one of the best metal albums of the year.

As they gear up for their first headlining tour of Europe since 2018, today, Defeated Sanity are flexing their rabid technical chops with a double guitar playthrough of the album’s most infectious deep cuts.

Watch guitarist Vaughn Stoffey and bassist Jacob Schmidt tear through “Extrinsically Enraged”. 

Their new album speaks to one’s inner caveman, but Chronicles of Lunacy isn’t Defeated Sanity for dummies. Each song chews over the kind of individual thought patterns that can rot the human psyche, though “Extrinsically Enraged” wastes no time in hammering its point. “It’s about contracting rabies”, vocalist Josh Welshman says with a hearty laugh. Stoffey and Schmidt gnaw at their fretboards as if their mouths are foaming. Their squealing riffs and scurrying grooves will chew a hole through the toughest metalheads.

The third pressing of Chronicles of Lunacy is now available on Season of Mist.
Order the limited-edition colored vinyl. Order at https://orcd.co/defeatedsanitythecroniclesoflunacy

Tracklist
1. Amputationsdrang (2:30)
2. The Odour Of Sanctity (3:36) [WATCH]
3. Accelerating The Rot (3:22) [WATCH]
4. Temporal Disintegration (5:52) [WATCH]
5. Extrinsically Enraged (4:09) [WATCH]
6. A Patriarchy Perverse (4:16)
7. Condemned to Vascular Famine (6:00)
8. Heredity Violated (3:48)
Total runtime: 33:35

Chronicles of Lunacy punches you right in the face. Opener “Amputationsdrang” already has you pinned to the mat beneath its non-stop blasts. Get comfortable, too. Defeated Sanity don’t let the album up for air until “Temporal Disintegration” warps into a wiggling bass outro.

“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 Chronicles of Lunacy, we wanted to focus more on neck-snapping brutality”.

Acting like cavemen isn’t so easy when your band has a Mensa-level maestro like Gruber at the controls.  “Lille’s drumming is just ridiculous”, says bassist Jacob Schmidt. Whether Gruber is hammering his snare, pinging between cymbals or riding a colossal groove, Chronicles of Lunacy flows like a never-ending stream of filth. Lead single “The Odour of Sanctity” opens like he’s puncturing a wound with blistering blast beats, only to spew over into a monstrously wonky syncopated stomp.

“He’s the face of the franchise, so we’re never going to abandon those head-scratching moments that set Defeated Sanity apart”, Schmidt continues.

Indeed, Chronicles of Lunacy isn’t Defeated Sanity for dummies. “Each song deals with a different form of mental corruption”, vocalist Josh Welshman says. “Odour” stinks of religious fanaticism. Early crowd favorite “A Patriarchy Perverse” cracks open the mind of co-ed killer Ed Kemper. “Sickness breeding sickness“, Welshman growls with guttural vengeance.

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. New guitarist Vaughn Stoffey’s chunky finger taps whip “Accelerating the Rot” into the fastest song in DS history. “This album is rawer and more straightforward”, Stoffey says. “It gets back to what people love about Psalms of the Moribund and Chapters of Repugnance“.

To dig up the sheer brutality that long-time fans have come to crave, Defeated Sanity returned to Thousand Cave Studios. The underground hot spot served as the excavation site for their previous two albums, but with Chronicles of Lunacy, producer Colin Marston was encouraged to really get his hands dirty. “We still wanted some of the high fidelity that you hear on modern death metal records”, Schmidt says, “but this album also has the old school’s crushing low-end”.

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”     

They’re never going to drag their knuckles in a straight line, but on Chronicles of Lunacy, Defeated Sanity return to sheer brutality.

To celebrate Chronicles of Lunacy, Defeated Sanity are embarking on their first headlining tour of Europe in six years. They’ll be performing songs off their brutal new album alongside Wisconsin’s Putrid Pile and To Violently Vomit Forth, a tribute to Disgorge that features current and former members of the legendary BDM band.

Iniquitous Savagery, Strangle Wire, Asylum and Embryonic Devourment round out the two legs of this stacked bill.

Defeated Sanity Chronicles of Lunacy 2025 European Tour
23 January – Wolfburg, DE @ Jugendhaus OST*
24 January – Hambourg, DE @ Bambi Galore*
25 January – Copenhagen, DE @ Temple of Doom*
26 January – Dyestad, SE @ Dyestads Bygata*
27 January – Stockholm, SE @ Kollektivet Livet*
28 January – Aalborg, DK @ Studenterhuset*
29 January – Tilburg, NL @ Hall of Fame*
30 January – Lille, FR @ The Black Lab*
31 January – Paris, FR @ Glazart*
1 February – Basel, CH @ Kaschemme Basel*
2 February – Milan, IT @ Slaughter Club*
3 February- Graz, AT @ Explosiv*
4 February – Vienna, AT @ Escape^
5 February – Zagreb, HR @ Klub Močvara^
6 February – Budapest, HU @ Dürer Kert^
7 February – Belgrade, RS @ Dorcol Platz^
8 February – Sofia, BG @ Oldskulls Club^
9 February – Varna,BG @ Club Smile^
10 February – Bucharest, RO @ Quantic^
11 February – Cluj-Napoca, RO @ Flying Circus^
12 February – Košice, SK @ Collosseum Club^
13 February – Prague, CZ @ Modrá Vopice^
14 February – Bielsko-Biala, PL @ Rudeboy Club^
15 February – Berlin, DE @ Orwohaus^

*with Iniquitous Savagery, Strangle Wire
^with Asylum, Embryonic Devourment

Defeated Sanity aren’t wasting any time in returning to Europe, either. The band are also hitting the European festival circuit this summer, including headbanging stops at Obscene Extreme, Offal Fest and Brutal Assault. 

Defeated Sanity 2025 European Festival Dates

9-13 July – Trutnov, CZ @ Obscene Extreme
25-27 July – Manchester, UK @ Offal Fest
6 – 9 August – Jaroměř, CZ @ Brutal Assault [TICKETS]

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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