A Q&A with Sanity

Symphonic metal with Biblical lyrics – here’s Julius from Sanity…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Our latest release is our 2024 EP The Beast. It is the continuation of 2023s Revelation and continues that journey through the book of revelation by John. It means a lot to us to continue that project and it will mean even more, when we finish it with the third entry next year.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
I think the mixing and getting to a satisfying result. There was a lot back and forth between Phil and our sound engineer about the final mix and the problem is not that these guys would be unreasonable or something like that but that this project just is very hard to mix properly.  With all orchestra and choirs it has to be.. I don’t know, 32 tracks or something like that? It’s crazy. Yea, that was hard. But we finished it and I think it sounds amazing.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it? 
Our recent releases are produced by Soundforge studios in Berlin. I think our sound engineer brought a lot to the release. He gave a lot of qualified  and adequate input to us musically and song wise. We are very grateful for that.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
I want our listeners to enjoy the complex arrangements we’ve created. Enjoy the music if you like it and if you want to, read the lyrics. Feel how the music fits these words of old and how that oppressing feeling of dread weighs you down when you think about the judgement that is to come.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
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. As our recent releases deal with the themes of the apocalypse of John, we take the passages from scripture and turn them into lyrics when writing songs. Sometimes we can take the literal text but most of the time, we will abridge the passages and write lyrics, that  encompass the theme of a passage in a song. All in all our writing is very close to the literal text of scripture though.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
I take most of my influence for this project from bands such as Death and Dream Theater. The other guys are influenced by Obituary, Epica and many more.  And then there is Flo who brings a whole cluster of weird influences: Emperor, Ancient, Bloodthorn, Orphanage, Gorefest, Cemetary, Eros Necropsique, Elend and it goes on. It’s crazy to me but this multitude of influences makes our music something special, something that is unlike anything else.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
If I dream large, I would love to tour the US or Japan. In Japan especially I would love to play in Budokan.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
I’d choose ‘Throne‘. It’s one of my top three songs of ours and I think it represents our style very well.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
Writing and recording many more albums. I love writing and I’d love to get better at it and then have a plethora of songs to choose to play live. And we wanna play live a lot and bring our music and message to the listeners in that personal fashion. I don’t know if we’ll stay underground or make it big sometime and honestly I don’t care a lot. The things I love are writing and performing music and that’s what we are doing right now.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Blessed are those who hear this prophecy and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

For more information about Sanity, check out www.sanity.berlin