I was first introduced to this German brutal death metal collective via their brilliant Chapters Of Repugnance album released way back in 2010. To say that I was I absolutely floored by the sheer brutality of this album is an understatement. In fact, when it comes to BSDM (brutal slamming death metal), Chapters Of Repugnance sits alongside Suffocation‘s Effigy Of The Forgotten as one of my most cherised albums of the sub-genre. It is the perfect almagamation of brootal and noodle.

Since that album, the band have released three full-lengths that have yet to capture my attention in the same way as Chapters Of Repugnance. Now, this isn’t to say that these albums are bad. Not at all. Musically, albums such as 2013’s Passages Into Deformity, 2016’s Disposal Of The Dead // Dharmata, and 2020’s The Sanguinary Impetus are fine representations of the band’s technical chops. Unfortunately, as a result of the technical aspects being front and center, the brutality was relegated to the back of the line. Additionally, the change of vocalists (A.J. Magana on Chapters Of Repugnance to Konstantin Lühring on the next two albums) was a move that also took a bit of steam out of the brutality train. Konstantin is a fantastic vocalist, he’s just a bit more versatile and fitting to the overly technical aspects of Defeated Sanity‘s approach with these albums. Lühring was then replaced with current vocalist Josh Welshman, who, to these ears, is a spiritual successor to Magana. As a result, I am happy to report that brand new album, Chronicles Of Lunacy, their seventh, sees the band returning to their visceral and uncompromisingly-heavy roots.

To dig up the sheer brutality that long-time fans have come to crave, Defeated Sanity returned to Thousand Cave Studios in Queens, New York City. This underground hot spot served as the excavation site for their previous two albums, but with Chronicles Of Lunacy, producer Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice) was brought in to ensure the album delivered a nasty, raw sound while still retaining some of the high fidelity that you hear on modern death metal records. While there exists a slight twang to the guitar and bass tones on Chronicles Of Lunacy, which serve to emphasize the technical intricacies, there is far more emphasis on an old-school inspired low-end that highlights the spine-pulverizing breakdowns. This chimeric approach is most prevalent on ‘Condemned To Vascular Famine’. At just under six minutes, the song is as off-kilter and vertigo-inducing as it is pit-crushingly heavy. Eventually, the entire affair comes slamming down into the album’s sickest breakdown.

The most defining feature of Defeated Sanity has always been the ryhthm section. With the physics-defying antics of drummer Lille Gruber at the controls, Chronicles Of Lunacy is an everflowing torrent of death metal sewage. Couple this with the digit-plucking dementia of bassist Jacob Schmidt, and you have a duo who not only sweep their way through maddening mixed meters, head-scratching time signatures, and synapses-snapping syncopations, but also gel to ride a groove not dissimilar to the American variety of technically-minded brutal death metal (à la Deeds Of Flesh and early Suffocation). This is best exemplifed halfway through the track ‘Temporal Disintegration’ where the finger-twisting complexity gives way to an oppressively infectious pitriff. Add to the mix new guitarist Vaughn Stoffey (who replaces long-time shredder Christian Kühn) and you find yourself staring-down the barrel of Defeated Sanity’s fastest three and a half minutes ever recorded with the track ‘Accelerating The Rot’.

Even though Chronicles Of Lunacy can get pretty fucking weird at times, there was definitely a concerted attempt at getting back to the heavy, straight-up slamming that defined the rawer and more straightforward aspects of their first three albums. Defeated Sanity have constructed an album that is both technically engaging and devastatingly heavy. When you are a band of this caliber, technically speaking, it can be difficult to balance the cerebral, flashy bits with that of the more simplistic/layman approach. This isn’t to say I want my Defeated Sanity to be caveman-like. If I want that, I can dive into the Cheeto dust-filled rabbit hole that is slam. Chronicles Of Lunacy is a no-bullshit album where every single riff feels like it has a purpose; whether that purpose is to tear your fucking limbs off one-by-one with world-crushing breakdowns, or challenge your ape-like temporal lobe with rhythmic complexity that focuses on a dynamic blend of (perceived) spontaneity and structure. The keyword here is ‘structure’, as Defeated Sanity are at their absolute best when the goal is focused and concise.