Behind the Video: Defeated Sanity Discuss Their “The Odour of Sanctity” Music Video

It’s a fair assertion that technical death metal music would not be what it is without Defeated Sanity. For 30 years, the band has set the standard, pushed the limits, and changed it up multiple times. Never ones to be afraid of experimenting, the band took their sound in different directions on their last two albums, The Sanguinary Impetus and Disposal of the Dead / Dharmata. The sound of those albums surprised some fans, which is what Defeated Sanity had set out to do. Their latest album, Chronicles of Lunacy (Season of Mist), is a little more back to basics. For this album, coming November 22nd, they focused more directly on the sheer brutality of their sound.

And brutality is what you get, along with a unique concept that was applied to each song. Each track on Chronicles of Lunacy focuses on a different form of “mental corruption.” The songs focus on issues like religious fanaticism, the mind of a killer, and even contracting rabies. Despite the wide range of subject matter, the album is more straightforward than the previous two. The sound is rawer and more traditional. It should be extremely pleasing to any old-school fan of Defeated Sanity.

To promote the album’s release, the band recently released a music video for “The Odour of Sanctity.” Joining us today for a Behind the Video interview is the whole band who share with us the details of the creative process of this striking new video.

Who directed the video?

Lille Gruber: “Long time brother/tm/booker/driver/videographer/visionary Paul McGuire of Obscenery Films. He’s been pressing us vehemently to produce a music video as well as create good content while we’re on tour.”

What’s the concept behind the video? Help us to understand the video’s concept in more detail and how it ties into the lyrics.

Gruber: “We were reading about Stigmata, inspired by what band father Wolfgang Teske (RIP), who once said, ‘We should try a concept album about Stigmata one day.’ While that endeavour struck me as quite ambitious, I thought in honour of him, we should write a song about it. The music video sprinkles in Christianity’s infatuation with the crucifixion through the help of these old paintings that we carefully selected. The lyrics are not so much blasphemous towards Christianity but more skeptical of humanity and its ideas/concepts and the manipulative means by which individuals try to paint a picture that serves their agenda.”

What should a music video set out to accomplish? Do you feel like yours does that?

Jacob Schmidt: “The biggest reason and purpose for a music video is to captivate the listeners with a visual component. It can add replay value to the track and lure in more listeners who otherwise wouldn’t give the track a proper listen.”

What do you hate about music videos? What did you wish there was less of? And what could the medium do away with?

Schmidt: “While it can enhance the music, the video can also distract from it, which it should not be designed to do. This might be specific to metal, but I strongly prefer videos that show the band in action.”

What is one thing you absolutely refuse to do for a video that everyone else seems to be more than happy doing?

Schmidt: “Using band members as actors in our own video… No thanks!”

Which statement seems most true to you: Music videos are a “high” form of art; music videos are a “low” form of art; music videos can be “high” or “low” art; it doesn’t matter, all art is art; it doesn’t matter, nothing really matters.

Josh Welshman: “I am very much of the mindset that art is subjective, and shouldn’t require meeting concrete criteria in order to be defined as art. That being said, I feel music videos (when done well) certainly have artistic merit. Different facets such as set/costume design, use of colour and imagery, storytelling in certain examples, and reinforcing a song’s lyrical content/message through the use of visuals all warrant creative thinking and artistic ability in order to do them well.”

How does the music inform the “The Odour of Sanctity” video in terms of visuals matching sound?

Vaughn Stoffey: “The technical nature of the music and subsequent performance allows for a lot of moments within ‘The Odour of Sanctity’ to be synchronized with the various images we wanted to incorporate into the video. Defeated Sanity, and death metal in general, I’d say, is first and foremost a rhythmic experience. So having all of those various rhythmic moments in the song accentuated by the visual component not only highlights those musical ideas even more so to the listener but also creates an opportunity for the visual element to be more impactful as well.”

How much more effective or beneficial is creating a music video now compared to 20/30 years ago?

Welshman: “The music video as format is more prevalent today than 20 to 30 years ago primarily due to the internet. Nowadays, it feels (unfortunately) like music needs some sort of video format in order to elicit any sort of response on a large scale. Maybe it’s that the common person nowadays needs to have multiple senses stimulated at once in order to appreciate/enjoy music. As an artist, it’s essentially a requirement to accompany any sort of musical release with corresponding video content, as if the music itself just isn’t enough.”

How important are music videos in terms of increased exposure?

Stoffey: “Given the nature of how media is consumed nowadays, I feel like the visual component of the video inevitably draws more people in. There is a visual element, a conceptual element, that comes into play that often augments the experience for whoever is consuming it. It allows the listener to attach certain images or ideas to the music that create more of an interest because it goes beyond the music itself.

“Personally, the music has always been enough for me to be fully immersed into the songs and albums we love. But a lot of people in the world we live in today are attracted to the additional components music videos provide.”