DEFIANCE Bassist Robbed At Gunpoint

Last Friday (March 14),bassist Mike Kaufmann of the San Francisco thrashers DEFIANCE was robbed at gunpoint by six guys at the West Oakland BART station (Bay Area Rapid Transit; rail service which connects San Francisco with the East Bay).

Commented Kaufmann: "I was barely able to escape and I'm VERY lucky to be alive. It was their intent to take everything I had and then kill me. The Oakland police caught them about an hour later and I made a positive identification. [Local TV station] Channel 7 will be doing a story about it because the crime was witnessed by BART police and they were too afraid to help me. I'm pretty much a wreck right now and I haven't slept much at all. What the fuck is this world coming to?"

DEFIANCE, best known for their seminal late '80s/early '90s Roadrunner releases "Void Terra Firma" and "Beyond Recognition", recently posted a new song, entitled "The Voice", on the band's MySpace page. The track is a rough mix from the group's sessions at Trident Studios in Concord, California with producer Juan Urteaga (EXODUS, SKINLAB, VILE) and is expected to appear on DEFIANCE's forthcoming fourth album, due later in the year via an as-yet-undetermined label.

Commened the band in a statement: "We're extremely happy with the way the album is coming out and plan to have it finished by April. We can honestly say this will be our best album to date. After the tragic loss of our best friend and guitar player Doug Harrington, it has been very difficult and challenging to move on without him, yet at the same time we know he would be very proud of what we've accomplished."

Along with the new album, DEFIANCE is also working on putting together a DVD, tentatively titled "Decade(s) of Defiance", that will cronicle the band's entire career from 1985 to the present.

Part of the so-called "second wave" of Bay Area thrash (which also included the likes of FORBIDDEN, VIO-LENCE, DEATH ANGEL, and TESTAMENT),DEFIANCE officially disbanded in 1993 after the departure of vocalist Steev Esquivel (who would go on to form SKINLAB, and later RE:IGNITION),while the remaining members, with the addition of vocalist Dave Godfrey White (HEATHEN),formed INNER THRESHOLD, which would also eventually disband.

In 2005, rumors of a reformed DEFIANCE sent waves of interest through the burgeoning thrash metal community until it was finally confirmed that the band had in fact reunited and were at work on their first new material in over a decade.

Metal Mind Productions recently released "Insomnia", a three-CD digipack containing remastered versions of the following DEFIANCE albums: 1989's "Product of Society", 1990's "Void Terra Firma", and 1992's "Beyond Recognition". This special collector's edition includes classic material from Roadrunner Records' archives, digitally remastered using 24-bit technology and released on golden discs. The three-CD digipack edition is limited to a hand-numbered 2,000 copies and contains a 28-page booklet with lyrics to all songs, full story of the band, and over 20 bonus tracks taken from the band's archives.