Metal Rules review of Chronicles Of The Cursed


Tragedy hits some bands harder than others. The death-toll in Cali-based Insanity went up to 2 band members on 14th November 2007 when Insanity..s longtime drummer Bud Mills passed away, suffering from esophageal cancer (stage 4). According to the band..s Myspace site, they are luckily getting back to their feet again, slowly but surely anyway.

CHRONICLES OF THE CURSED by Insanity, is the most luxurious product from a rising Chinese underground metal label AreaDeath Productions / Xmusick League; a 2-CD digibook compilation featuring Insanity..s material from 1985-94 - this including their impossible-to-find DEATH AFTER DEATH album (originally released on M.B.R. Records in 1994), a 4-song re-mastered 8-track recording, the band..s most classic 3-track demo from 1985, many live + rehearsal songs, etc. - basically covering the band..s entire catalog perfectly. Plus, this 36-page hard cover digibook comes with liner notes (written by Exhumed..s Matt Harvey and Napalm Death..s Barney), a long and in-depth interview of Insanity vocalist & guitarist Dave Gorsuch, lyrics written both in English and Chinese - and all this added with tons of killer photos from the band..s past years, some of them being really rare and probably even never published before prior to this fantastic release.

But that..s enough about what this release contains and how it overall looks. What about Insanity..s music then, I am already hearing you whining anxiously? What?! You haven..t heard of Insanity before? Are you kidding me? Oh my, shame on you! Well, let me just say that when Insanity started back in 1985, they were one of the most relentless, vicious and aggressive death/thrash metal bands on the face of the earth. No kidding! In fact, I would say they were right there with bands like Possessed, Hellwitch, Slayer, Exodus, etc. – playing a high-velocity death/thrash metal with such intensity and aggression that absolutely dropped some jaws wide open. The music was pure brilliance in terms of their very well executed and skilfully played songs that got many people to bow in front of them in sheer amazement. Songs like “Blood for Blood”, “Ultimate Death”, “Fire Death Fate” and many other Insanity songs became instant classic numbers among their fans that they always demanded Insanity to play live. For those who never got an opportunity to see the band live, I think it was a very good call from the band to include some of that live material for this luxury compilation CD, just giving a taste of how tight and aggressive they already were when playing live shows back in the day. The sound quality of those live tunes varies quite a lot, but that..s only a minor point because Insanity truly slaughtered live.

However, much like Hellwitch from Florida, US, Insanity never got a chance to take those few, last important steps to bring them to the same league as bands like Possessed or Exodus, but they always stayed more or less as a relatively unknown underground force that somehow missed all opportunities to bring things to the next level. Signing a deal with the German M.B.R. Records wasn..t probably one of their best choices they have made in their whole career, but at least they got their debut album released eventually unlike many of their fellow bands from those days.

CHRONICLES OF THE CURSED is nothing but a mandatory package for every Insanity fan – and actually for everyone else for that matter, who can still appreciate the past times of some of these finest and most talented underground metal bands that quite never made it big for themselves, but whose destiny was to stay as an underground act for their entire lifespan. Get this while you still can because this is limited to 1000 copies only – and probably a very limited die-hard version (a fancy-looking box, limited to 200 copies; including also an Insanity patch, a long sleeve shirt and a button) is already sold out.

For All INSANITY MERCH go to the Official Web Store!



INSANITY T-Shirts and Baby dolls




INSANITY Screened Patches




INSANITY Chronicles of The Cursed Double CD Digibook




INSANITY limited print of XL HOODIES - (same printing as on Black T-Shirts)




INSANITY DVDs




INSANITY 7" Vinyl of 85 Demo w/Snakepit magazine issue #15





AND MUCH MORE AVAILABLE from Official Web Store!!!

Here is a bio written about Insanity found by "Googleing" band members names posted at:
http://www.swapacd.com/cd/artist/297546-insanity

CHECK IT OUT!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Formed in 1985, Bay Area band Insanity were instrumental in metal's evolution from thrash to death metal. Drummer Bud Mills was a big reason why, as his so-called "1-1" beat presaged the modern blastbeat. The band's sound more than lived up to its name. Not only did it crank thrash up to frenzied warp speeds, it also displayed chops well ahead of its time. Insanity were legendary worldwide in the '80s metal tape trading circuit, with members of Carcass and Napalm Death citing them as an influence. However, the band never achieved proper success due to various misfortunes. Insanity's inaugural lineup comprised vocalist Joe DeZuniga, guitarist Dave Gorsuch, bassist Keith Ellison, and drummer Bud Mills. Their 1985 rehearsal demo, recorded with a Walkman and a stereo microphone in a garage, gained global renown in the metal underground. Napalm Death later covered "Fire Death Fate" on Leaders Not Followers, Pt. 2, and Snakepit magazine reissued the demo on 7" with its 15th anniversary issue. Insanity made its storied live debut on October 19, 1985, opening for Death in Bay Area metal hotspot Ruthie's Inn. However, two events derailed the band's rising career. The first was Mills' incarceration for ten months; the second was DeZuniga's death from heart disease on May 16, 1987.

After DeZuniga's passing, the band struggled to maintain a consistent lineup. A debut full-length, Death After Death, ensued in 1994 on German label M.B.R. Gorsuch was the only founding member still in the lineup, which included Matt Janko on guitar, Joe Landers on bass, and Prakash Sharma on drums. However, Sharma developed back problems and Insanity disbanded in 1994. In 1997, the band re-formed, with Lou Gilberto on bass and Mills on drums, and reworked Death After Death with new vocals and guitar tracks. This lineup yielded the three-song Sacrifixion EP, but the group folded in 2001.

This hiatus proved temporary also, as Insanity re-formed to play a mini-tour in California in 2005. That year also saw the release of From the Grave, a compilation on Parasitic Twin Productions, which collected the 1985 demo, Death After Death, and various 8-track demos. Napalm Death's Barney Greenway and Exhumed's Matt Harvey supplied liner notes for the compilation. Mills rejoined the band in early 2007 to play the Los Angeles Murderfest alongside fellow death metal pioneers Repulsion, Atheist, and Obituary. However, in September, Mills was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and he passed away on November 14, 2007. At the time, the band was working on an album titled Visions of Apocalypse, and elected to soldier on using Mills' pre-production drum tracks. ~ Cosmo Lee, All Music Guide

Now the guest book for Bud Mills at Legacy.com willl be permanently online!

All fans and friends of Bud Mills are urged to leave a comment. It means a lot to his family and closest friends. Thank you!

Thanks to our friend Bronwen pictures can be added as well!

Here's the link:

http://www.legacy.com/InsideBayArea/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=98109577



There will also be more video featuring Bud and Insanity posted at the YouTube Insanity channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Insanityvids

We want to thank all the people in Seattle, Spokane and especially Portland that came out to support on our tour with Book of Black Earth and Scorched Earth! It was an awesome three day travelling party for us, raging with good friends from the past and making tons of new ones on our first trip to the Northwest.


INSANITY "Sacrefixion" live 4-24-09 Satyricon Portland, OR

The videos look better than on myspace and there will be a lot more videos and behind the scene stuff posted on YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Insanityvids

Plus there are some other play lists featuring some of our favorite bands!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL9lI7G7OSM

Come join us to remember an amazing friend and drummer on what would be his birthday April 17th at Village Host pizza in Burlingame.

INSANITY
Chronicles Of The Cursed (DoCD)
(AreaDeath Productions)
158:57min

Do I really still have to introduce California's INSANITY to the VOICES readers? Oh well... These guys started out back in the mid 80s and quickly established themselves as a highly intense, deathly Thrash Metal force. Musically they could almost be labeled as a highspeed version of early POSSESSED yet with an even more aggressive overall approach in their delivery. Unfortunately their original guitarist / singer Joe De Zuniga died of a heart disease in 1987 and none of the bigger, more established labels at the time picked them up, so that they weren't really able to catch up on the attention that like-minded bands such as DARK ANGEL, POSSESSED, EXODUS or SLAYER were already getting. As a result it took them no less than nine long years to finally get their debut full length "Death After Death" released through the small German underground label MBR Records. Even though the album is totally killer from start to finnish, it unfortunately only gained them cult status... Probably first and foremost because of its poor distribution, but also because of the fact that this type of music was already considered dated by a lot of the younger kids who worshipped the more brutal Death and grim Black Metal instead that had flooded the scene in the meantime. But all this luckily couldn't stop INSANITY, so that they are still going strong these days, with guitarist Dave Gorsuch as the leading force behind them (he also took over the vocals after Joe's death). So, apart from the original "Death After Death" album there's already a couple more INSANITY releases out in the meantime, but none of them was done with so much dedication as "Chronicles Of The Cursed", which just came out on China's AreaDeath Productions. The entire release is strictly limited to 1000 copies and was manufactured in a very deluxe way, almost like a real hardcover book, with an additional high glossy jacket, while the two included CDs were visually designed like vinyl records (you'll even recognize a "Side A" and "Side B" on them, which is a damn cool idea). So yeah, it all looks incredibly great! The book(let)'s actual pages begin with a title- and content-page followed by liner notes from EXHUMED's Matt Harvey and NAPALM DEATH's Barney, an in-depth interview with INSANITY guitarist / vocalist Dave Gorsuch, all the lyrics and a lot of cool pics... If you're furthermore able to understand the Chinese language, you'll be pleased to hear that all of the stuff in there got translated into Chinese as well. There's also a very limited (!!) "Chronicles Of The Cursed" die hard edition available (200 copies) that comes in a great looking box and additionally includes an INSANITY patch, a longsleeve-shirt and a button! My only little complain regarding the packaging is the fact that there's no real tracklist and recording details in the english written part... Maybe that was simply forgotten (as it is in the Chinese part)?! Who knows... Anyway, that ain't really a big deal, so let's have a look at the material instead that is on both of the CDs. About 50% of it was already featured on the "From The Grave" compilation CD that came out via Parasitic Twin Productions in 2005... I'm talking about the entire “Death After Death” album (except for 'In Memory', the little Joe De Zuniga musical tribute piece), 4 remastered  8-track recordings (unfortunately 'Ultimate Death' from that same session is missing here), as well as the 3 songs from the band's classic ‘85 demo. But don't worry too much about that if you should already own that compilation as there's no less than 22 additional tracks on this double CD that should easily please every INSANITY maniac to the max! I won't go too much into details here, which songs exactly you're gonna get, just let me tell you that there's a couple of live songs from Berkeley ('86) and San Jose ('94), a 1989 demo (4 songs), the first recording of the 1985 demo plus a bunch of early and late 1986 rehearsal songs. The sound quality differs from good to average, but that should be obvious anyway as we're mostly dealing with live-, rehearsal- and demo-recordings here. As the original "Death After Death" CD is out of print for a long time already, this is a good opportunity to finally add that album with tons of additional material to your collection! Essential! www.myspace.com/insanity, http://adp.areadeath.net/en/
Official Insanity Website - http://www.blacklungproductions.com/insanity

Frank Stöver

NEW DELUXE RELEASE of CLASSIC OLD SCHOOL DEATH METAL!

CHRONICLES OF THE CURSED - 2 CD Comp. with 36 page book is NOW AVAILABLE!
go to OFFICIAL INSANITY WEBSITE to order




Also Available -  Deluxe BOX SET including 2 Sided Long Sleeve Shirt, Patch & Pin - Limited to 200 only!