INSANITY was formed in 1985 in the Northern California Bay Area and unleashed some of the most intensely brutal death metal of that time.

Insanity was one of the first bands to use super-fast drum beats (ala Cryptic Slaughter) powered by Bud Mills. The vocalist/guitarist Joe DeZuniga roared out some of the most powerful and brutal death metal vocals to be heard since. He was also one of the main songwriter's 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 catchy tempo changes. 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. The last element to send the music over the edge was a ripping bass player and Keith Ellison played like a death metal version of Steve Harris.

The first show was played on Oct. 19th 1985 with Death and Sacrilege and the band maintained a frenzied pit the size of the headliner's the whole set, 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, (which became good friends of the band). In those days there was always a good crowd of people who opened their minds to an awesome band they never heard before and after a few shows Insanity was being hailed as the new "Gods" on the scene!

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 urging readers to send 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 until the early 90's with the recording of the bands debut release "Death After Death".