SANITY – Interview

Interview with Julius (guitarist) from the German act Sanity.

Introduce your band, and describe your latest release:

We are Sanity from Berlin, Germany. Our latest release is titled ‘Revelation’ and begins our lyrical and musical journey through the biblical Book of Revelation.

What’s the hardest part about being a band in this day and age?

The hardest part for me is that you’ve got to do much work beyond just being a musician. I would be happy to just practice, play my parts and write songs but that is not enough in this day and age. There is promotion, social media presence, planning gigs, recording and releasing the music and on top you still have to practice your instrument, write fresh music and additionally keep the rest of your life outside music running. So yeah, all this extra baggage that is not playing/writing/recording music. That’s the hardest part for me.

When did you realise that your project had the potential to be much more than just a fun idea?

When planning, writing and recording the music of ‘Revelation’. The songwriting and production is way too mature and sophisticated to just be a ‘fun idea’. And everyone who listens to our music must agree that it is serious, we are serious. And I guess that’s how you’ll know, that our project has massive potential.

Tell us about your latest release, why should we check it out?

‘Revelation’ is great, it’s good music. It might not be your taste, but it won’t be like anything you’ve ever heard. The intense marriage of extreme metal elements like the growling and screaming vocals, fast riffs and intense drums with the symphonic elements of orchestra and soaring clean vocals makes this album truly unique. You’ll find elements of black, death, symphonic and thrash metal, but it won’t sound like a horrible amalgamation of unfitting parts but instead like a well crafted symbiosis of strangely fitting elements.

How does a song typically come together for you?

When writing songs I usually start with the music. Most of the times I’ll have a riff, or an intro that I enjoy and I would write the rest of the song around it. As for lyrics, we usually write them onto the musical piece, after the piece is composed. After a first demo is recorded we’ll of course refine it until we are happy with the song.

How would you describe your sound to an unfamiliar reader?

I would describe it as symphonic metal with death and black metal elements. Expect rich orchestral parts, fast guitar riffs, blast beats and double bass extravaganza and a remarkable range of vocal styles including low death metal growls, haunting black metal screams and epic power metal clean vocals.

What do you want listeners to take away from listening to your band?

Most of all enjoy the music. That’s why we put all the work into a high value production. Secondly you should read the lyrics. We took great care to fit the biblical texts of the Book of Revelation by John onto our music and the message they contain is haunting. It’s amazing to me that the bible contains such passages.

Where would you really like to tour that you haven’t done so yet, and why?

Since we yet have to have a tour to begin with I am dreaming of a lot of things. Of course Europe is close to us that would be great. USA and Japan would be amazing too, I think there are a lot of metal fans in those places.

How would you say that the sound of your band has progressed over the years?

Sanity recorded some albums way before my time in the band, in the early 2000s and even the 90ties. And we’ve come a long way since then. The early albums have a much more raw sound to them. Our latest stuff is better produced of course but I wouldn’t say it lost any of the aggressiveness of early Sanity. It has been more refined and matured if you will.

How excited are you for 2024, and what can fans expect from you?

We are very excited to release our newest record ‘The Beast’ next month. This is gonna be a brutal one. Our latest record ‘Revelation’ is very fresh too, released just last year. You can check out our music videos for ‘Throne’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x4RdpaD9Ho) and ‘Seals’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9adVATPq-yA) from that EP.

You also can make sure not to miss anything and follow us online:

Web: https://www.sanity.berlin
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sanity.berlin
Bandcamp: https://sanityberlin.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sanity.berlin

Streaming Site Links:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/0bhXlkSU7XN56kBuUuvXXa?si=ki9IcUitQNyodBXyrq_B5Q
YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCsYZJ2WYArtoGXgBOc-jVNw?si=OmjURhgpG_wSbCHN