INSANITY is one of these bands that I surely missed in the 80s. It wasn’t until very recently that, thanks to my Brazilian friend, I was able to listen to their interesting music. They formed back in 1989, but wasn’t active for very long though. “Phobia” is their debut album from 1993. They also recorded three demos, two 7``s and their second album “Mind Crisis” after which they split,but left their farewell demo “Product from a Sick Mind.”
It is a pity that such good death/thrash disappeared. Well, they weren’t active for too long a time, but left some immortal decent music. The Rising Records edition contains 9 standard tracks and a number of tasty bonuses such as tracks taken from the 7ep and demos recorded in 1990-91, which is really good as these tracks are as good as “Phobia” full length itself.
“The 7th Day of Creation” is a 36 second intro that precedes very energetic “Dismal Lullaby” with this dirty sound, so characteristic for Brazilian productions. It matches the music ideally, as this music is a unique blend of thrash and death metal. This fusion sounds so good when it comes to Brazilian bands. “Pleasure of Pain” is preceded by an intro from one of the “Hellraiser” movies. Played very energetically, this track is full of thrash energy. A very vigorous structure of this track, simple as it seems, but actually doesn’t at all, is truly noticeable.
“Mistakes of Oblivion” is another energetically played song. This track is just galloping naturally the way it should be. And this track is really powerful, too. Again and again, the twisted rhythms cut the galloping drums and meaty, dirty sounding guitars make this stuff really decent. “Pay for Your Faith” is somehow slower, more massively sounding track with a great solo part. There are also some crazy tempos that ideally make this song more varied.
I think that the initial fragments of “Night of the Living Dead” are, when it comes to drumming, slightly CELTIC FROST`ish, but later the song speeds up. You can hear some SEPULTURA influences here and there, but I would say the INSANITY`s music is more grim. Thevery aggressive guitar is very impressive. “Innocent Laughter,” with the preceding keyboard intro a `la ACHERON creates an obscure atmosphere.
The intro matches this heavy and very slow track perfectly. This track slowly bulldozes over a listener, and then grinds and destroys him with a storm of simple but mind-deflorating nails of the drum work. Many tempo changes are (arrangement-wise) very interesting. What we have in result, is a very dark and grim song with a very dense solo. “Sadness” starts very atmospherically too, and becomes more and more death metal in the vein of DEATH/OBITUARY. Jet-black parts blend with a very beautiful, almost lyrical solo. “And the Bloodshed Goes On” ends the standard edition of this material. It is a typical death metal song with twisted guitars and crushing sound.
“Confined in Freezing (Wait and Agony)” and “Brain Dead” are two tracks that come from the 1991 ep. The sound is similar to this from “Phobia,” but these tracks are not that thrash oriented. They are definitely death metal in nature. Great solos make these songs really amazing to listen to. When it comes to “Brain Dead,” beside the death metal atmosphere, you can easily hear some SEPULTURA influences.
It is not surprising as the band recorded two cover songs, “Troops of Doom” and „Inner Self”. Well, it should be enough to say that SEPULTURA heavily influenced the INSANITY`s music. In Search of Reason” is a song that is taken from demo 1990 and sounds sort ofPunk`ish, it is fast with some interesting guitar interludium and a solo inspired by METALLICA. “Pay for Your Faith” with a guitar intro is a song from demo 1990 too, and provides some raw, almost Punk`ish mayhem! This cut must be a perfect live song!
“Night Of The Living Death” is taken from the INSANITY`s first demo “In Search of Reason” from 1990. This is a very good song with a very distinctive, “dense” guitar work. This guitar work makes this song fast; this song gallops, and is very 80s`ish. At the end, we can listen to “Brain Dead” again, but this time it is a demo version, which is much rawer. These 14 tracks fucking kill alright! Have you not listened to INSANITY for any reason, well, get this album as soon as possible.
LWS