Defeated Sanity continues to defy expectations within the death metal scene. With their 30th anniversary on the horizon, the band shows no signs of slowing down, and their seventh album, Chronicles of Lunacy, stands as a testament to their ongoing evolution. Much like Slayer’s South of Heaven, this album dials back the extremity of their previous release, The Sanguinary Impetus, which represented death metal’s most extensive foray into jazz fusion, at times abandoning many of the fundamental ideas of brutal death metal, without compromising quality. Instead, it serves as the best representation of their past ideas, reimagined with fresh intensity. Functioning almost as a retrospective of their career, yet never feeling derivative, Chronicles of Lunacy might just be their most accomplished work to date.
One of the most striking achievements of Chronicles of Lunacy is its production, arguably a masterclass in adapting brutal death metal for the digital age. Despite the album’s bass-heavy and chaotic sound, there is a remarkable clarity and separation between the instruments. Jacob Schmidt’s bass cuts through the dense mix, an impressive feat considering how much low-end weight the guitars carry. This balance is anchored by the production’s focus on drummer and primary songwriter Lille Gruber, whose virtuosic drumming serves as the album’s unifying force. Gruber’s performance is a whirlwind of unorthodox note groupings and unexpected placements, often creating a disorienting “no-time” effect that challenges conventional rhythmic expectations. Yet, for all its technical complexity, the drumming retains the primal intensity at the core of brutal death metal. With a ping-heavy snare and a bright, sharp hi-hat, the percussion imbues the music with raw, visceral energy that only amplifies the chaos and unique sense of groove that this band is known for.
Defeated Sanity’s approach to melody has evolved significantly over their career, shifting between distinct styles across their discography. Early releases leaned on chromatic and minor-scale melodies, rooted in the traditional frameworks of death metal. On Dharmata, the band experimented with a more consonant, progressive sound reminiscent of Death and Cynic, though stretched and warped in their signature style. Their last album, The Sanguinary Impetus, saw them embracing avant-garde influences, drawing on the wild, intricate ideas of bands like the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but with the unrelenting intensity that defines their music. Chronicles of Lunacy masterfully integrates these diverse approaches, not by pushing any single element to its limit, but by weaving them together seamlessly. This compositional fluidity is particularly evident in the final third of “Amputationsdrag,” where melodies from across their stylistic spectrum unfold sequentially, creating a sense of cohesion and progression.
The band also excels at juxtaposition, contrasting their intricate melodies with bone-crushing slams and breakdowns. These shifts are not deployed merely for shock value; instead, they serve to enrich both extremes. By setting delicate melodic passages against devastating rhythmic assaults, each idea is heightened through contrast. Remarkably, Defeated Sanity often blurs these boundaries, fusing melody and brutality into cohesive compositions that feel like integral parts of a greater whole rather than opposing forces.
Defeated Sanity defies the unwritten rules of extreme metal, a genre often bound by the belief that only a band’s first few albums can truly excel. While many acts fall into repetition or fade into irrelevance, Defeated Sanity continues to push themselves to greater heights. Chronicles of Lunacy may not be their most boundary-breaking release, but it is arguably their finest. By weaving together the best elements of their past explorations with ingenious, fresh approaches, the band has crafted an album that feels entirely original, never derivative of their previous work, and pushes death metal to new heights. As the most important death metal act of the last twenty years, Defeated Sanity have proven themselves to be a canonical band on the same level as legends like Suffocation, Morbid Angel, and Gorguts.
