Black Lung Productions
Insanity Website
 








 

BIOGRAPHY

INSANITY was formed in 1985 in the San Francisco Bay Area and unleashed some of the most fast & brutal death metal of that time.

After being friends for years and going to see bands like Motorhead, Metallica & Slayer, Joe DeZuniga and Dave Gorsuch decided to form a death metal band in 1985. The vocalist/guitarist Joe DeZuniga roared out some of the most brutal death metal vocals of that time. He was also one of the main songwriters and the artist that created the logo with the decapitated heads. The other guitarist/songwriter Dave Gorsuch seemed to push the style of guitar riffs to a more technical edge while mixing in stomping heavy parts. With Joe's style progressing in that direction as well, it proved to be a great partnership and the two would go on to collaborate on most of the early material. They tried to write songs that mixed in riffs that were technically intense and acheive a style that went beyond what was considered heavy and brutal. Dave's high school friend Keith Ellison played bass like a death metal version of Steve Harris and had been tring to start a band with Dave since 1984. When drummer Bud Mills joined the band in September of 1985 and played faster than the normal thrash beat most bands used, Insanity was pioneering new levels of speed and intensity in early death metal.

The first show was played on Oct. 19th 1985 with Death and Sacrilege and the crowd maintained a frenzied pit which was admittedly short because the band only had five songs at the time. INSANITY then went on to play with many of the other great bands that played Ruthies Inn including the likes of Possessed.

Meanwhile a live rehearsal tape that was recorded with a stereo microphone was being circulated and an underground following was growing in countries around the world. About 1986 the underground scene was really growing and a number of fanzines were coming out with Insanity always getting one of the best reviews and many orders were coming in for the `85 Rehearsal Demo as the first recording came to be known. After that everything seemed to be on the right track.

But this did not last long, after having problems with equipment and finding a rehearsal studio, Bud had to serve about 10 month's of jail time. During this time the only productive thing the band could do was to write new material. So while we were preparing to record in a studio upon Bud's release so we could finally get signed, Joe became ill with a heart disease. The band recorded one last rehearsal tape with Joe after a temporary release from the hospital but it was evident that some of his vocal power was gone due to the illness. Several months later after a long up and down battle Joe DeZuniga died on May 16th 1987.

After a long break the rest of us tried to keep the band going, but we couldn't find a singer with Joe's vocal strength and more problems we're yet to come including a number of line up changes for a number of different reason's that kept the band from doing anything significant for a while. Driven by the never-say-die attitude of the band and the support of the most devoted fans, the band was reformed in 1989. After a few years of struggling with a couple of line-up changes, Insanity signed a one-record deal with a German independent record label and released the debut Death After Death. Unfortunately the band was not complete when labels such as Nuclear Blast offered to sign the band. Although there wasn't that much difference between Nuclear Blast and M.B.R. at that time, it would have signicantly changed the band's career if things happened differently.

Insanity played live numerous times in 1993-94 with the most notable show being at the Omni with the reformed POSSESSED (Mike Torrao has been a good friend of Insanity since 1985) & Machine Head on March 12, 1993. After drummer Prakash Sharma's back problems became serious the band took a break in late '94.

In 1997, the band reformed and Insanity began working on new material. A 3 song CD called Sacrefixion has been released but unfortunately big differences in levels of dedication, money spent and effort put in strained relations between band members and this line up broke up in late 2001.

After Insanity was reformed in 2005 the band played the first show in many years in San Francisco June 8th. While the band was booked for other shows to prepare for a West Coast tour with Exhumed from August 25th-28th, drummer Colin Osness broke his hand. Luckily after Colin's cast was removed and was cleared to play on the 19th, the band was able to rehearse a few times before the first show at The Pound in San Francisco and continuing on to Southern California. Insanity gained many new fans on the road helping to re-spark interest in the band to a new generation of metal fans.

8 months after playing the Los Angeles Murferfest in 2007, original drummer Bud Mills passed away of esophageal cancer preventing the band from recording the Visions of Apocalypse album. The band reformed in late 2008 and played all over the U.S. west coast in 2009. Then more line up changes were made and the band is preparing once again to record the Visions of Apocalypse album and move forward.