SANITY’S RAGE

“We just play what we like to hear – that’s why we’ll never be an exact copy of ourselves.”

“‘The Dead Don’t Run’ brings back the original spirit with 20 years of experience added.”

“’The Dead Don’t Run’ is proof that Sanity’s Rage survives – even in spite of the wrong people.”

“2025 isn’t 1985. A lot has happened – and we’re not ignoring that.”

“The urgency is set from the beginning, no matter how long it takes to finish a song.”

“I will never tell my own story – only how it makes me feel.”

“I want people to feel the anger, the pain, and the RAGE.”

“It’s like picking up where you left off, only older and more experienced.”

“We’re thrashing at 200 BPM – but we’re also proud of showing another side of the band.”

“The riffs make the attitude – the lyrics underline the feeling.”

“You can be a virtuoso, but without feeling there’s nothing worth listening to.”

“With the original guys back, the foundation is true thrash again.”

“Five musicians don’t make a lasting band – it takes more.”

“We’ve got nothing to prove. We are Sanity’s Rage.”

Sanity’s Rage have never been interested in nostalgia, comfort, or compromise.
From their earliest releases to the long road leading up to ‘The Dead Don’t Run‘, the Belgian thrash outfit has operated on one core principle:
play what feels right – and mean every second of it.
After lineup changes, long silences, and personal fractures, the band returns not softened by time, but sharpened by it.
What emerges is an album driven by conviction, urgency, and hard-earned clarity – thrash metal rooted in tradition yet unafraid to evolve.
We spoke with Kenny M (vocals), Kenny C (guitars) and Tim DB (guitars) about defiance, reunion, anger, honesty, and why feeling still matters more than speed.
‘The Dead Don’t Run‘ feels deliberate rather than nostalgic.
How conscious were you about avoiding the trap of sounding like a band reliving its past?
Kenny M:
“Sanity’s Rage have always had a very convinced ‘we play what we like’ approach. We start from a solid and elaborate preference for thrash, but other influences tend to slip in unavoidably. With ‘The Rage Of One’ (2006 – EP) we made the blueprint. Though ‘You Are What You Swallow’ was finished in another line-up, the same applied, but with other musicians and influences involved. ‘The Dead Don’t Run’ brings back the original spirit and drive with an added 20 years of experience and both old-school and modern influences. Since we don’t limit ourselves to a narrow rulebook and just play what we like to hear, we’ll never be an exact copy of ourselves, yet always retain a specific sound and logical continuation in our sound.”
After more than a decade between albums, what did time change for you creatively – and what did it leave completely untouched?
Kenny M:
“After the split with the rest of the musicians in 2016, I took a year off from any musical activities. It helped clear my mind from the writer’s block I encountered over the years with the previous lineup and the bitter taste the breakup left me with. Exactly one year later I was approached by a guitarist friend of mine to start another project. A different style, a different concept. My creative flame was reignited, the fire of Sanity’s Rage was left smoldering. The next few years gave me plenty of time to gather inspiration to feed it when the time came, with a fresh mind and free of past limitations.”
Tim DB:
“After having been kicked out of the band, I kept playing music, ranging from the thrash metal I had left behind to punk rock and even some Indie pop rock music in our native language. However, in metal, I kept listening to the same styles of music and I kept playing the same styles of music and I never lost my love for the ‘thrashy’ side of metal.”
Kenny C:
“I actually stopped playing guitar and barely listened to any music for a decade as I moved my focus to work & new family situations. So for me personally, rejoining Sanity’s Rage and rediscovering my love for guitar & thrash metal, initially brought me back to the ‘Rage of One’ era. Over the past few years I also (re)discovered bands like Pantera, Machine Head and Gojira that definitely influenced me in writing new riffs.”
Thrash metal thrives on urgency.
How do you recreate that sense of immediacy when writing music over a longer, more patient timeline?
Kenny M:
“Our songs aren’t written collaboratively. Almost an entire song is written by one of the guitar players, then the rest of us finish our parts. This way, the flow of the song and the urgency is set from the beginning no matter how long it takes to finish up.”
Tim DB:
“Kenny C and I have always been a good match when it comes to songwriting. We have a very similar taste in thrash metal and a similar style in playing guitar and writing songs. We just know that what the other one is writing is going to be worthy of a full song. Sure, it happens that some riffs are turned down, but they are definitely a minority.”
Your sound balances classic thrash DNA with modern sharpness.
Where do you personally draw the line between evolution and dilution?
Kenny M:
“Whatever works works. Groove thrash, death thrash, melodic death… Pantera, Machine Head, The Haunted, they are all thrashing bands, even though they don’t follow the bay area or teutonic rulebook. 2025 isn’t 1985. A lot has happened and a lot of genres have branched out and been diversified. Many of the New Wave Of Thrash bands base their sound on a deep nostalgia for the 80’s and that’s fine. We on the other hand play what we feel is Sanity’s Rage material and that’s always rooted in the broad thrash setting. After YAWYS I felt dilution seeping in. With the former lineup, they didn’t have any thrash background and their heart wasn’t in it either. The thrash feel was gone. And though we had enough material to make two albums, I could hardly work with anything they delivered. It didn’t feel right. Now, with the original guys back, the foundation is true thrash again, and everything else is a go, as long as it fits the SR sound.”
Tim DB:
“Exactly so, there will always be a thrash foundation, because that’s just who we are and what we love. On top of that, we will lay down whatever we like to hear and whatever sounds right to us.”
Many bands soften with age – lyrically or musically.
Was there ever a temptation to do so, or did anger simply take on a different form?
Tim DB:
“We’ve never given that any thought, to be honest. Again, we’re truly making the music that we love and as you can hear on ‘The Dead Don’t Run’, we’re thrashing at 200 BPM in some songs, but the final song ‘Sanity Lies In Ruin’ shows a different side of the same band. We’ve always been joking about writing ‘a ballad’ and I think this is as close as we’re going to get to a ballad, even though we never intended it to be one. It just felt right to write this song and we couldn’t be more proud of the richness it contains, both musically and lyrically!”
Kenny M:
“As Tim describes there’s a more personal and introspective side to part of the album. But compared to our first EP we did together, this had always been part of Sanity’s Rage. Even if I write based on personal experiences or feelings, I will never tell my own story, just how it makes me feel. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you can still relate to the feeling. That’s very much present in ‘Sanity Lies In Ruin’. On the other hand songs like ‘Blood Calls for Blood’, ‘Nothing Sacred Will Hold’ and ‘Sanity’s Rage’ seem like social and political manifests, while they are also very personal frustrations and contemplation that drove my writing.”
The album title suggests defiance rather than resignation.
What does ‘The Dead Don’t Run‘ symbolize for you on a personal or artistic level?
Kenny M:
“On an artistic level it’s proof that Sanity’s Rage survives with the right people. On a personal level it’s proof that Sanity’s Rage survives in spite of the wrong people. It’s defiance that was endured and nurtured for 10 years towards people who I considered to be my friends but kicked me and turned their back on me when I was at my lowest. The song is about the ghosts of that past, not getting any closure, not allowing myself to. It’s by far the angriest song, yet from a very vulnerable source.”
Reuniting core members after years apart can be powerful but risky.
What surprised you most about working together again?
Tim DB:
“It all started with (quite) a few beers at a show of one of our other bands and I recall the exact words being: ‘Dude, we should get Sanity’s Rage back on track’ but it might have sounded a bit hazier! Nonetheless, we did manage to convince everyone and it felt right from the start. Unfortunately, Kristof Meert (drums) had to throw in the towel after a few shows because of severe lower back pains. Enter Sam Stoelzaet, who has lifted the whole band to a higher level and pushing himself and us further than we had imagined.”
Kenny M:
“The uncertainty and possible doubts were almost instantly lifted during the first jams and practice sessions. It’s like picking up where you left off, only older and more experienced. The latter showed as soon as new songs were being put to the table. Then we knew not only the soul of the band was back, but also its fullest potential ever.”
Belgium has a strong but often understated metal scene.
How has being part of that environment shaped your mentality as a band?
Kenny M:
“20 years ago was a whole different scene than now, in fact, for all 3 releases the times and scene were different. When we started out we were a band of relatively young guys who played purebred thrash. In a scene that had moved on to brutal death metal and dark cult black metal. While it gave us some opportunities to play with bigger names such as After All, Destructor, Laaz Rockit, locally it wasn’t the easiest match with most bands. By the time ‘You Are What You Swallow’ came out we were in full New Wave Of Thrash spirit. The complete opposite. Loads of thrash band, loads of thrash gigs. Considering it also took us a while to get our first full album out, we really had to make our mark in between the huge wave of bands. Now we are happy to be back together in a lineup that’s solid, has a great creative interaction and makes music we all feel and stand for. Even after all these years people really resonate with our sound and are excited we are back, or should I say still around, which makes it all the more satisfying.”
Tim DB:
“We play ‘angry’ music, but we’re very jolly fellows and we really want that attitude to show when we arrive at a venue, meet other bands and people and even when we are on stage. We want to deliver as professionally as possible, but we also want to show that we are really enjoying what we are doing and that we are grateful for every stage that we are given. Years ago, there used to be a genuine competition between bands, but we feel like that has disappeared. Sure, there are thousands of bands out there and only a limited amount of stages, but we can be truly happy for other (befriended) bands when they manage to get a spot somewhere that we didn’t.”
You’ve shared stages with genre legends over the years.
What separates bands that endure from those that burn bright and disappear?
Tim DB:
“We’re not just five guys playing music, we’re five true friends who come together to play the music they love and we share life events and life’s troubles with each other. We share, we listen and then we’ll t(h)rash all that shit down the drain for at least a little while. That’s what binds us together and that’s what’s already making us think and talk about the next album and other future plans.”
Kenny M:
“I think with the lineup changes we’ve proven that point. At a certain moment the band consisted only of me, a couple of boxes of merch and the ambition to keep the spirit alive. Because the other musicians didn’t have that connection, not with me, not with the band. Especially in getting back with the original crew and finding someone like Sam who matches perfectly, it proves Tim’s point. 5 musicians don’t make a lasting band, it takes more.”
Thrash has always been about more than speed – it’s about intent.
What do you feel is missing in a lot of modern aggressive music today?
Tim DB:
“I’ve never been the best guitar player when it comes to lightning fast solos and I never will be. But I know that I’m good at writing riffs and songs and that’s where I want my time and energy to go. The internet is filled with guitar players who want to show the world how fast they are and at the end of their video, you have FELT exactly nothing. I don’t want that in our music. I want people to feel the anger, the pain and the RAGE!”
Kenny M:
“Very true. You can be the most insane virtuoso musically, but if you don’t have a feeling to share, there’s nothing worth listening to. That certainly goes for lyrics as well. While there’s many who don’t share this opinion, or don’t really care if the lyrics are of a certain standard, I appreciate a certain effort and standard. Give me something to feel and believe. Be it criticism, emotion. Even satire and fun can be great if it has some form of wit to it.”
If someone new to Sanity’s Rage starts with this album, what aspect of your identity do you hope they grasp first:
the message, the riffs, or the attitude?
Tim DB:
“I think I’ve answered that in the previous question. I want people to feel our music and not just hear it.”
Kenny M:
“It’s such an essential part of all of our writing that it is inseparable really. The riffs make the attitude, the lyrics underline the feeling. As soon as I heard the first raw demo tracks (on tape, back in the early 2000’s), I had this very feeling with Sanity’s Rage. These riffs tell me their vibe, their feeling and then based on that vibe, the lyrics come.”
Do you see ‘The Dead Don’t Run‘ as closure – or as a reset that opens the door to a more active future?
Tim DB:
“For me, it was a clear reset of Sanity’s Rage. We’ve now shown the world what we are and who we are as a band and on this path we will continue. Our take on thrash metal won’t change on the next album, but we will definitely have a few surprises up our sleeves, just because we think it will sound nice. Not too many thrash bands end a song with a piano outro, like we did in ‘Reeducate The Masses’, but to us, that was exactly what the song needed before we could really lay it down.”
Kenny M:
“Like stated before, it’s definitely a certain closure for me. In moving on, I can let go and look forward. It’s definitely not closure with anything musical related. We just prove we keep going and growing and will keep on doing so, without restrictions or hesitation.”
Looking ahead:
is your motivation now driven more by legacy, or by the hunger to prove something still unfinished?
Kenny M:
“Sanity’s Rage will be finished when we call it finished. We don’t feel any urge to prove anything, that’s what makes this work. We are all musicians that have a shared passion to create and play. Sanity’s Rage proves the best framework for us to do so, and the five of us prove to be the best lineup to make this work in a very smooth, almost organic way. With others it didn’t work this way. In the end they left.”
Tim DB:
“Exactly, we’ve got nothing to prove. We are Sanity’s Rage and we hope you like our music. If you don’t, that’s fine. We respect that.”
‘The Dead Don’t Run‘ is neither a farewell nor a victory lap.
It is a statement of survival – forged through time, tension, and an unbroken belief in what thrash metal is meant to do:
channel intent, emotion, and raw human fire.
Sanity’s Rage sound unified, hungry, and unburdened, moving forward without hesitation or nostalgia-driven restraint.
There is no chase for legacy here, no need for validation.
Just five musicians, bound by trust, history, and shared purpose – still standing, still raging, and very much alive.
by Fok ‘bs’