After topping best of 2024 lists and breaking onto the Billboard charts, this year, Defeated Sanity have been slamming Europe and Latin America in support of their latest offering of brutally innovative, technical death metal. Now, as they prepare to level the stage next weekend at Brutal Assault, at long last, the band are announcing that they’re bringing Chronicles of Lunacy to the U.S.
This November, Defeated Sanity are touring major markets across the U.S. with Corpse Pile, Despised Icon and Sanguisugabogg, who featured DS vocalist Josh Welshman on their new single. During this 22 date run, the band will perform all of Chronicles of Lunacy, plus some old fan favorites.
“We are super stoked to announce our first U.S. tour since 2023!”, Defeated Sanity says. “We can’t wait to finally present our newest release Chronicles of Lunacy to our U.S. fans live and in action. Be sure to join us as we brutalize the U.S. once again”.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, August 1 at 10 am local time
Defeated Sanity 2025 U.S. Tour Dates
with Sanguisugabogg, Despised Icon and Corpse Pile
November 4 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall [TICKETS]
November 5 – Chicago, IL @ Metro [TICKETS]
November 6 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe (Old National Centre) [TICKETS]
November 7 – Lawrence, KS @ The Granada [TICKETS]
November 8 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall [TICKETS]
November 9 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater [TICKETS]
November 11 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Nile Theater [TICKETS]
November 12 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory [TICKETS]
November 13 – Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre [TICKETS]
November 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater [TICKETS]
November 15 – Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club [TICKETS]
November 17 – Dallas, TX @ Echo Lounge & Music Hall [TICKETS]
November 18 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk [TICKETS]
November 19 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs) [TICKETS]
November 21 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum [TICKETS]
November 22 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade [TICKETS]
November 23 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground [TICKETS]
November 25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre [TICKETS]
November 26 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage [TICKETS]
November 28 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza [TICKETS]
November 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer [TICKETS]
November 30 – Columbus, OH @ The King of Clubs [TICKETS]
Chronicles of Lunacy is available on Season of Mist.
Order the new limited-edition gold with black splatters vinyl variant: https://orcd.co/defeatedsanitythecroniclesoflunacy
Tracklist
1. Amputationsdrang (2:30) [WATCH]
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
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 2010, Gruber has taken on the bulk of the composing for 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
Follow Defeated Sanity
https://defeatedsanity.com/
https://defeatedsanity.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/DefeatedSanity
https://www.instagram.com/defeated_sanity_official
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0dy6peOuKo2QkwaNWPoJpx
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/defeated-sanity/277268753
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